Every Hero Needs a Savior
by SunnyGirlTheSunster
Summary: Harry Potter AU. Six years after the final battle, Healer Ginny Weasley is assigned to her former love, the savior of the wizarding world. The only problem is he is in a coma and she has moved on with her life. HarryGinny. R&R. No flames please.
1. Counting

**A/N: **_All of the characters I use are sadly not mine own...oh well. They all belong to J.K.R. Except the one's I make up of course. hehe...I own them! hahaha!_**  
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**Prologue: Counting**

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"It's over!"

People were yelling all around the young woman with glistening red hair. They were crying and laughing and exclaiming for all those who bothered to listen, that Voldemort had been defeated. She watched as families were reunited and small children ran around without the need of supervision as there was no longer any danger. She watched with a vacant smile splayed across her angelic face and a gentle nod to anyone who looked her way. But behind the smile, Ginny Weasley watched nothing.

Diagon Alley was full of color and life. And it was good to see it had returned to its original state before the war. Even the sun had come out on the cool September day and the rays seemed to bring back happiness into people lives. But she couldn't linger there. No. Ginny Weasley had work to do. She walked amongst the crowed, absorbing the information that she had been waiting so long to hear. Without Voldemort, everyone could live again.

She continued her journey down the alley and made her way towards what was left of its darker and more diabolical companion. And suddenly she was standing at the front line of what had been the healer zone, the only place she was allowed to be during the battles, counting to eleven. A part of Ginny's mind argued that it was an easy task, but the more logical and fearful part pondered if she would even make it past four. From what she could see, amidst the debris and disaster, there were about as many casualties as standing; both death eater and civilian.

One. Ron made it back. She saw the blood slipping past several of his makeshift bandages Neville must have put on. The slightly pudgy young man had carried her brother all the way through the battlefield and the relief that everything was over showed in his eyes. Ron's eyes were closed. Neville himself had not emerged unscathed. His own arms looked like they had taken a rather nasty cutting curse and he struggled with each step.

She rushed over to him. "Neville, will he be alright?" Ginny noticed there was blood in Ron's mouth and she quickly pointed her wand at it and vanished the life substance. She didn't want her brother to choke.

"I don't know." He told her truthfully. Healer to healer. "I honestly don't know. I'll take him to one of the tents and they'll probably send him to St. Mungo's." Ginny nodded and watched him take her brother away.

Two. Ginny's mother walked slowly towards the former safety zone. Everything was safe now. She had a slight cut above her right eye and a subtle limp, but otherwise seemed unharmed. She waved to her only daughter slowly and winced as her foot caught on a rock and she stumbled a bit. Ginny winced with her but stayed where she was.

"Mum," Ginny called as softly as would still carry. "Are you alright?" Molly Weasley shrugged and smiled at her youngest. Ginny noticed that it never reached her eyes. She assumed her mother felt like her in this situation. There was no time to be alright unless everyone else was fine...or at least living. Molly, always having been an overly mothering and loving person, would probably not be alright for days. But Ginny wouldn't press her.

"I'm fine, dear." Molly said. Ginny noticed she looked older and more worn. Something that had nothing to do with the grey hairs that had emerged in the last days before the battle, but more in her eyes. "Have you seen any of your brothers?"

"Ron's in one of the tents," Ginny told her. "He might have been apparated to St. Mungo's by now, though. He only arrived a moment ago." Molly nodded slowly before heading off in the direction of the tents that had been set up for the wounded. Ginny was grateful that she hadn't asked why her daughter wasn't doing her job. Technically Ginny was still supposed to be working with the wounded; her healer in training license proved that. She had acquired it during her seventh year when St. Mungo's started outsourcing after a brutal attack to its main branch in London. It was sufficient to say her parents had been furious.

Three. Four. Five. Fred and George emerged from the thick dust in the air with Bill slouched in-between them. His hair had fallen out of its ponytail and it was hanging in mats of sweat and blood around his face. His feet were dragging behind him leaving grooves in the ground as they went. Ginny vaguely wondered why they weren't levitating him.

"Ginny!" George called when he saw her. "Come over here and help."

"He weighs a bloody ton," Fred added after. "Don't know what he eats."

"Must be all that French cooking," George said referring to Bill's wife.

"What's wrong with him?" Their sister asked calmly. They watched as she slowly reverted back into her healer training and tried not to remember that Bill was family. When St. Mungo's had first started recruiting her into battles she hadn't been able to handle her family's injuries because she had been too emotional. But that had all changed after Charlie had needed immediate attention several weeks before at the Battle of Hogwarts and there had been no one else available. Ginny had grown up significantly after that.

"He was hit with a rather strange curse," George recalled. "He started clutching his head and screaming."

"Running around in circles while the death eaters laughed," Fred said bitterly.

"Finally he just feinted." George nodded towards the gash near Bills hairline. "Hit his head on a rock."

Fred nodded sadly. "I'm pretty sure he was stepped on a couple of times as well."

Ginny sighed loudly. "This is mostly spell damage. I don't think I can do anything for him right now." She reached into her robes and pulled out a vile of yellowish liquid. "Take him to the tents and give him this. It should clear up any internal bleeding. And try levitating him." She glanced back at Bill's legs. "You could do some permanent damage to his feet." She thrust the vile under George's nose.

George winced and took the vile. "We can't levitate him. Our magic's too low."

"We can barely do an Alohamora." Fred contended as he eyed the vile strangely as if to say 'good thing it's not me drinking that'.

"Good thing the battles over." George said with the first real smile his sister had seen in days. Ginny had always admired that ability of her two brothers. They always seemed to be able to bring hummer into the situation; no mater how bad it was.

Fred followed. "Until next time then."

"Don't you know?" Ginny asked baffled. Fred and Georges identical smiled both dampened slightly.

"Know what?" They questioned together.

"Voldemort's gone," Ginny said softly while looking down at her feet. "The war's over. I thought you knew. I thought everyone knew. They've all been celebrating. In Diagon Alley and here in the zone." She looked up and saw her twin brothers shocked expression twists into fierce smiles.

"This is brilliant," said Fred.

"Good on Harry," George agreed.

Ginny paled. She had been trying to avoid Harry's name ever since she had heard the war had ended for the very reason that she did not know his whereabouts. She swallowed hard trying to quell her emotions but nothing worked and she felt her heart rate rise and her eyes widen while they tried to accommodate unseen tears.

"Ha-have either of you two actually seen Harry?" Her voice squeaked a bit and she bit her lip at how immature it sounded. Her whole family knew she had been seeing Harry for the last year, but they pretended not to in order to give them privacy. Ginny had always liked the idea of them not jumping in on the relationship and never seemed to mention it around family members. She didn't like feeling weak around them, especially her brothers, and had told herself never to cry about Harry in front of them. Her worries about Harry didn't have to be her families business. They had their own things to concern themselves with.

"No." The twins unison voices brought an onslaught of emotion that she found hard to hold back.

"But no worries," Fred said unfazed. "He was no where near us."

"Yeah," George agreed. "He was fighting Voldemort at the other end of the er...alley." He looked around. It had looked like an alley five hours before, but now it more resembled a collapsed mountain.

"Right." Ginny's voice was shaky and her smile was forced, but the twins didn't press her. Instead they bid her goodbye quickly and trekked off to get Bill the proper medical attention. She watched them go with mixed emotions and contemplated going after them in order to help where ever she could, but finally decided to stay where she was and resume her counting.

Six. Fleur, graceful and beautiful as ever, despite her recent size, seemed to emerge from the crowd of celebrating people with the determination in her eyes akin to those of someone who was fleeing from Filch at Hogworts. Ginny almost didn't know weather to be scared or relieved that she was alright. The pregnant, blond, French, half-veela was walking straight towards her now, and Ginny waved softly and gave a slight smile which wasn't returned.

"'Ave you seen my 'usband?" Fleur asked briskly. Her eyes darted around wildly and for a moment Ginny saw the scared woman underneath her cold exterior. Over the course of the war, Ginny and Fleur had found things in common, one of the main one's being neither of them had been allowed to participate in the fighting. Ginny didn't mind as much as she had thought she would, as the medical work was almost as challenging, but Fleur had been greatly depressed. It was her pregnancy that kept her from the battles and as much as she wanted to do her part, she knew she had to keep inside.

"What are you doing here?" Ginny demanded. She suspected that when the French woman had heard that the war was over she immediately went to search for her husband, but the youngest Weasley decided she didn't care. That was her nephew in there and there were still deatheaters around, so it rated as too dangerous. "Your seven months along." Ginny gave her sister-in-law and accusing stare and the older woman faltered.

"I 'ade to see eef ee was alive." Fleur responded, her crisp manor back. Ginny knew to back down. There was only so much arguing one could do with a pregnant woman. "Please. 'As he been past 'ere?"

Ginny nodded almost reluctantly and gestured behind her loosely. "Not five minutes ago. Fred and George carried him to one of the tents. He might have gone to St. Mungo's by now, though." She looked deep into Fleur's eyes and hoped that her gaze passed assurance to the pregnant witch. "He's alive."

Fleur almost broke down. A smile ridden with anguish tore her mouth into an 'ah' shape rather violently and a deep sob escaped. "Merci deu..." She swayed on her feet and Ginny pulled her into a warm hug. Fleur buried her face into Ginny's neck and cried out of relief and fear. "Merci deu que il et la..." She cried softly. "Merci...que il n'est pas parti..." She held on to Ginny until she felt she could stand and then hurried off without another word to find her husband.

A subtle ache made itself known in Ginny's lungs. She wished she could run off and find Harry the way Fleur was running after Bill. She longed for his sight and craved the reunion she wasn't sure she would ever get with him. Her eyes searched the crowds franticly and desperately but she saw nothing.

"Ginny?"

She whipped around to the voice behind her and stared directly into the worried face of Neville Longbottom. She looked away from his haunted eyes as quickly as possible and shivered at what she had seen. There was no potion or spell to cure the loss of one's blood innocence, and she had never seen it so plainly as with Neville. He must have just killed his first deatheater.

"Hi, Neville." She turned back to what remained of Knockturn alley and searched for more people to count. "Is Ron alright?"

"He took a couple curses, but I'm sure he'll be on his feet in a week or so. The worst was his side wound."

"What about you? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I got my arms healed up nicely."

"Are you going to do another run?" Ginny asked inquiring about Neville's work. She never understood why he wanted to be the one to collect the wounded in the battles, but then again he never understood why she didn't. Neville nodded in response and cleared his throat a little nervously.

"Have you seen Luna?" Neville was shifting on his feet and she could feel the anxiety coming off him in waves. She knew he loved Luna, and had for a while; but never had a chance to ask her on a date. She suspected nerves had a large part to do with it but never said anything.

"Er...yeah," Ginny said cautiously. Luna had been blasted at the very beginning of the battle with a very powerful stunner sent by Lucius Malfoy. He had been aiming at attaching the healer zone, but his spells couldn't match the wards that had been put up around it. Unfortunately Luna had not been inside the safety area... "She's at St. Mungo's." Neville's eyes widened. "She'll be alright. She was just stunned."

Neville smiled and shook his head. "I appreciate it, Ginny. But it would have to have been a really powerful stunner to land her in St. Mungo's. Otherwise she'd be in one of the tents, wouldn't she?" Ginny winced slightly at her mistake. "It's alright, I won't leave until all the wounded are up. Healer's oath, right?" Ginny nodded and then paled when she remembered something. Neville had brought in Ron. Ron must have been fighting close to Harry.

"Neville," She spoke quietly, not trusting her own voice. "Have you seen Harry?"

"No." He spoke too quickly.

"You must have," Ginny insisted, angry that he would lie to her. "You brought in Ron. He must have been near Harry."

"No." Neville said again. Ginny exploded.

"Just a glimpse! That's all I'm asking! Please!" She tried to hold back her tears, but they came anyway. "I know Ron and Harry were next to each other in the battle. They always are...Neville I need to know if you saw him!" Neville looked slightly guilty but said nothing which further prompted Ginny's upset. "Neville I need to know! I deserve to know!" The dark haired young man looked unconvinced and Ginny found herself sobbing. "Please..." She spoke more quietly. "We've been dating. I love him... Please tell me where he is. If it was Luna out there..."

Neville softened. "I didn't know that you were together."

"We are together." The vibrantly red haired witch said accenting the present tense.

"You don't know what it was like out there." Neville spoke just above a whisper, his own tears falling slowly. "All I saw was blood... Curses were flying everywhere...I watched Harry and Voldemort duel..." He flinched slightly as he said the name. "Ron had gone down hard before I got there and Hermione and Harry were back to back. Hermione was facing off with Bellatrix and loosing. I panicked when I saw Hermione go under the cruciatus. So I pointed my wand at Bellatrix and..." Neville looked away in shame. "I killed her."

"She was evil." Ginny said soothingly. She had had this conversation before with Harry. "You did what you had to. You saved Hermione."

"It's no excuse." Neville spat as if he were disgusted with himself. "While I was picking up Ron...Harry made me promise that I wouldn't tell anyone where he was. He said it would only get other people killed and that this was something he had to do alone." Ginny would have laughed if it wasn't so serious. That was so typical Harry. "It took me near an hour to get back here with Ron. By that time everything was over. We won." A ghost of a smile appeared on his face and he looked off behind him at what had used to be Knocktern Alley. "We won."

Ginny felt panic grip her. "Where's Harry?"

Neville's smile faded. "He's..." he stopped himself. "He's about an hour from here, but..." He took a deep breath and gathered Ginny's hands, a move she recognized from the healers grief counseling training. She felt a pang of fear. "It's too late, though." His words were so soft she could barely hear them over the ever growing noise of the celebrating and the cries of the wounded behind her. "Anything you do now would be too late." He coughed slightly and released Ginny's hands to wipe his own tears. "He's dead."

"You're wrong." Ginny denied. "He was alive when you left him. Alive and dueling." She wanted to scream and beg. Plead with anyone to shut Neville up and denounce his speech as lies, but she found all she had the energy or motivation to do was whisper.

"I'm sorry, Ginny." Neville apologized. "He was bleeding freely when I was there. And the duel with Voldemort didn't allow me to patch him up. There was nothing I could do." He shook his head. "That was an hour ago. There's no way he could have lasted this long."

"No!" Ginny's scream echoed across the rubble and heads turned but she didn't care. "Where is he? Tell me where he is!" She drew out her wand and pointed it at her longtime friend in her grief. "I'll hex you if you don't tell me, Neville. I swear on my grandmother I will."

Neville paled, but didn't reply. He didn't have to. At that moment a voice called out to both of them that shook them from their conversation.

"Ginny?" Keeping her wand firmly pointed at Neville, Ginny turned her head to see the questioning eyes of her father.

Seven."Hi, Dad." She said in a broken voice. She hiccupped a couple of times and regained her composure before going on. "Maybe you can convince Neville here to tell me where Harry is." She looked back at Neville. "I really don't want to hex him." Neville flinched from the malice in her voice, but said nothing. His silenced aggravated her further and she pushed the tip of her wand closer to his throat. "Sometime today."

Arthur Weasley sighed at his youngest child. She got the temper from her mother and he knew better than the contradict either one of the beautiful redheads; especially when the redheaded witches in question were emotional about loved ones.

"You'd better do as she says, Neville." Arthur said quietly. His face had taken a gaunt look to it lately and Ginny promised herself that later, she would talk to him about that. "The wars over. It can't hurt." He paused briefly and let his gaze flicker between both hid daughter and Neville. "Harry will want to see her."

"It's too late, he lost too much blood. There's no hope, he's already de -" But Arthur held up a hand to silence the young man.

"Harry Potter has defeated one of the most evil wizards of all time. He's not one to die of something as small as blood loss. And I'm sure Ginny's taught him a few healing tricks by now, so hold your tongue." Arthur's voice was stern and his expression hard. Ginny had never seen him speak this way to anyone, even the twins, and Neville paled under his gaze.

"He's near the other end," Neville said quickly as he was eager to get away from the tip of the wand pointed at his throat. "He was dueling on a sort of hill where there used to be a stone bridge. You follow the alley until you see a fork. You turn right and its about a ten minute walk from there. Good luck." The last part was whispered. Ginny lowered her wand and pulled him into a savage hug.

"I'm sorry I had to do that," She said through another couple hiccups. Her tears had subsided slightly and she suspected adrenalin was taking hold. She turned to her father who was still looking at her rather curiously and sadly all wrapped into one. "Mum's by the tents. She's not hurt...neither are Fred, George, and Fleur." And after one fleeting smile that she gave him, Ginny ran.

Her core was numb. A mantra ran through her head as if it held the gravity of her own life as well as Harry's. She wasn't sure that it didn't. 'Find him.' She told herself. 'Just find him.' She came across a couple of people she knew in the first few minutes. Colin Creevey looked up at her from where he was sitting in the rubble, cradling his dead brother. A little while later Dean and Seamus seemed to have conjured crowns with the last of their magic, judging from the sizes, and were dancing around singing to the demise of the Dark Lord. Ginny looked up at them and they saluted her and kept celebrating amidst the debris and dead.

Eight. Charlie Weasley's unmistakable red hair came into her view to her left. He was lying on the ground seemingly unmoving and she rushed over too him. Fear seemed to replace the blood in her body as she knelt down and touched her fingers to his pulse point in his neck. A steady beet lulled her from her panic and she breathed deeply.

"Charlie," She said trying to wake him. "Ennervate," she cast to revive him. He opened his eyes slowly and they rolled around for a bit before focusing on her. "Hi, Charlie."

"Hey little sis," he said softly. "I'm not dead, am I?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "No, your not. Do you honestly think that if you were, I'd be the one to greet you?"

He seemed to think about it for a moment before grinning. "No, definitely not. Mum would kill you if you died in battle." His laugh seemed to die in his throat, though. "Is Mum alright?"

Ginny nodded. "Mum's fine. Everyone's fine...I still need to find Percy, Hermione and Harry, though." Her voice caught on Harry's name and Charlie looked at her curiously.

"Is everything alright between you two, Ginny?"

Ginny looked offended. "Of course it is." She snapped and then looked apologetic. "I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that. Its just... the war is over." She paused and contained her tears that threatened to spill. "Harry defeated Voldemort."

Charlie smiled and attempted to sit up. "That's brilliant...incredible...amazing..." He seemed to drift off in the idea that Voldemort was finally gone. "Aren't you happy, Ginny?"

Ginny shrugged much like her mother had earlier to her. "I'll be fine once I know everyone's alright." She looked at her brother and hugged him tightly where they were on the ground. It was an uncomfortable position, but she didn't care. "Harry..." She choked. "I've been told that Harry is dead." Charlie broke the hug and looked at her in horror. "I don't believe it," She went on. "I'm off to find him. I would know if he was," her eyes pooled with tears and they fell shamelessly, "dead."

"Go," Her brother told her gently. "I'll be fine. I'll make it back. I'm not hurt. I was just stunned." He pushed her lightly away from himself and looked deeply into her eyes. Their brown color had gotten darker from crying and he reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. "Go."

She didn't need to be told again. She got up slowly and with increasing pace went on her way down when was left of Knockturn alley. Every so often she would be stopped by a stranger because she was wearing the official healer's robes, but she managed to find her way down the alley mostly without incident. It struck her somewhere along her path that their weren't many survivors. Rescue teems scurried around collecting the injured and she watched in morbid fascination as they cast charms to bag the dead.

Her whole body shuddered when she saw what looked like a child body bad. There would be no erasing these memories from her mind. Even with an obliviate, she was sure they were burned deeper than could be forgotten. She quickened her speed once again and looked around for what Neville had told her; a sort of hill. She saw nothing that resembled it.

"Healer!" A man yelled towards her. She stopped where she was and mentally cursed him. She didn't have time for this. "Healer please," She turned around to face him and he seemed to run at her. His hair had large chunks missing and he looked as though he's been on the receiving end of four too many cruciatus curses.

"How can I help you?" Her professional voice slipped through.

"My name's Carter," He began in a flurry of words. "There's a man just over there. He's lost a leg. He's loosing blood quickly and he's feinted." As he spoke, Ginny recognized the injuries as life threatening and she grudgingly, yet speedily followed Carter towards the injured man. What she saw almost stopped her heart.

Nine. Percy Weasley was propped up against what must have been a store front. His eyes were closed and his head was lulling to one side. She knew he had fought in this battle, but part of her almost didn't believe it. He had left her family too many times for her to believe he would fight with them again. But apparently he did, and she was going to do all in her power to insure that he lived.

"Percy!" Ginny cried as she ran over to him.

"You know him?" Carter asked surprised.

"He's my brother," She explained before peeling off the covering Carter must have put on Percy' left leg. Sure enough it was gone from the knee. Ginny was almost sick from all the blood. There was nothing she could do. The wound was too great. He would need to have higher medical attention. At least the healer zone if not St. Mungo's right away. But apparating to St. Mungo's was tedious and required a lot of strength. "Alright. Do you have any magic left?" Carter nodded slowly.

"But I won't do a magic infusion," He said panicking slightly. "It nearly killed my cousin when she did one last battle."

"You won't have to. Just apparate him to the healer zone." She looked at Carter carefully. "Can I trust you with that?" Carter nodded. "Thank you. His life is in your hands."

Carter paused suddenly. "Why can't you?"

"I have to find someone." She replied evenly and walked away, trying not to think about Percy's injury. He would never be the same, she concluded, and the notion stung her harder then she ever thought it would.

She alternated running and walking as she noticed she was getting closer to the end of the alley. There was too much dust in the air to run for long periods of time, so by the end of each short sprint her lungs burned and her head spun terribly, but she pressed on. She encountered the fork just as Neville said she would and took the right path. Her eyes searched the ground quickly yet carefully and she noticed that the amount of people in this area decreased almost with each passing step.

"Harry!" She called out. "Harry! Where are you? Harry!" The landscape was almost empty now and the few people that were there didn't seem to be in any condition to help her. The worst fighting must haven taken place where she was standing. "Harry!"

"A-are you l-looking for Potter?" Ginny spun around to the person that had mentioned Harry's surname. She nodded franticly and looked around as if he was there but she couldn't see him. "He's over there...by that small hill." The man who had spoken to her reached out with a battered arm and pointed to where sure enough, there was a rise in the rubble.

"Thank you," Ginny breathed as she ran over to her destination. She could hear her heartbeat clearly in her ears and her breath was coming in short bursts. "Harry!" She called again. But she saw no sign of him.

"Ginny, he's here." Ginny whipped around to see Hermione a few feet to her left, sitting cross-legged on the top of the rise with Harry's head cradled in her lap. She hadn't seen them due to the large amounts of dust in the air, and she fell on her knees and crawled over to them. She didn't trust herself to stand and walk.

Ten. Eleven. She barely registered that she had counted to eleven because more of her mind was focused on the black haired young man with crooked glasses and a lightning shaped scar, in front of her. She nearly collapsed at his side and lifted an arm to stroke his hair back from his face. He was warm. She sobbed in realization that he was alive.

"Hermione," Ginny said never taking her eyes from Harry. "Are you alright?"

Hermione frowned. "I'll be fine." She looked down at Harry and she too began to stroke his hair from his face. "How is everyone else?"

"Fine." Ginny said. What else could she say? She took her hand off Harry's face and touched his shoulder, shaking him lightly. "Wake up, Harry." He didn't move. "What happened?"

"He's been like this for an hour." Hermione said sadly. "I can't wake him...I have no magic left...I'll need a couple potions and days to recover from this." Ginny nodded.

"Neville told me he was dead," Ginny's voice broke and her tears started flowing again. "You have no idea how happy I am that he's alive."

Hermione winced and slowly looked at Ginny. She opened her mouth a couple times and closed it again as if she didn't know that to say. Ginny looked up at Hermione curiously and their eyes met uncertainly. The younger girl noticed that the other was crying and it scared her beyond anything she knew.

"He's not going to make it, Ginny." Hermione said.

"You're wrong."

"Am I?" Hermione looked battered and worn and Ginny saw her hands trembling from where they were touching Harry's hair. "Am I wrong?" She cried softly for a moment before recomposing herself. "Tell me I'm wrong again, Ginny. Tell me so I'll believe it. You're the healer."

Ginny said nothing. How could she? The more she looked at the love of her life, the more she saw. He was pail...too pail. And the heat emanating from his core was too hot. Bruises were starting to appear across his face, and his robe was nearly soaking in his own blood. His girlfriend drew in a sharp breath; it didn't look good.

"We have to get him to St. Mungo's." Ginny said slowly. "Common." But Hermione made no movements.

"My legs are broken." The bushy haired witch admitted. "You take him." They transferred Harry slowly to Ginny's lap and she struggled to hold his larger body safely in her own. "Apparate him directly." Ginny nodded and prepared herself. Now was not the time to splinch.

"Hermione," She said before she went.

"Yes?" Hermione asked quietly and almost hopefully.

"He's going to live." And with a pop, she left.

When Ginny Weasley arrived at St. Mungo's she was astounded by the sheer number of people. She noticed there were hospital beds set up in the lobby and the whole place looked like it was swimming from all the noise. From her place on the ground she realized no one would notice her, and with difficulty she supported Harry's body until she was holding him while in a standing position. She had him sort of draped on her as if they were hugging, but his feet were slightly behind him on the ground and his face was pressed into her chest.

"Help!" She cried out, but her voice was drowned by all the other cries of the same thing. She paused to think. "Sonorus!" The spell amplified her voice and she angled her head towards the front desk. Madelyn, who was working there, looked as though she was at the point of tears. "Help!" She said again, and everyone turned to the loud voice. "I have Harry Potter here, and if he doesn't get medical attention immediately, he will die!"

Several things happened at once. Ginny silenced her voice as she saw it was not needed and a pathway cleared, people ran over to get a good look at the savior of the wizard world, several healers rushed towards her and levitated Harry onto a stretcher, and Harry regained consciousness.

"Ahhhhh!" The sound that seemed to rip from his lungs was pure pain and everyone seemed to want to sooth it. Ginny gripped his hand tightly from where she stood next to his stretcher.

"I'm here, luv." She told him with a forced smile. "You're going to be fine." But he continued screaming. "Someone get him a pain reliever!" Ginny yelled around and almost immediately a young woman was there with a purple vile in her hands. Ginny snatched it and forced it down Harry's throat. His yells subsided and he started whimpering. "I know it hurts, Harry. But you'll be alright."

"Gin?" His eyes found hers and he squeezed her hand. She squeezed him back.

"I'm here, luv." She said again.

"Love you," He murmured. Ginny broke down in tears and held his hand even more tightly. She followed him into the lift and stayed with him while they carried him into a private room. Healers came in and out examining him, but she stayed at his side and all the while they never seemed to break eye contact.

Time passed slowly and at some point Ginny was aware that it had gotten dark. The window to the outside was quickly shut and shuttered after a reporter came by on a broom with a camera. The hospital staff, Ginny's colleagues and superiors, apologized profusely; but the red haired witch couldn't find herself to care. All she was concerned with was the young man now lightly sleeping in front of her.

"Ginny?" Ginny looked up from her uncomfortably visiting chair and saw the distinct face of her boss. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" Ginny nodded and got up, gently placing Harry's hand that she had been holding back on his bed, and let herself be led out into the hall.

"Clement," Ginny said adopting informal speech. She didn't have the energy to give him the proper respect. He seemed to understand as he didn't correct her. "Tell me what's wrong."

Clement eyed her sadly. "I'll be honest with you, Ginny. I won't give him three days." Ginny furrowed her brow and glared at him. He recognized her retort building and put a hand on her shoulder in condolence. "He has...too much internal bleeding. Not to mention spell damage...broken bones...nerve damage...infection and fever... Maybe if we had gotten to him sooner. But even then I don't know." He shook his head. "It's a shame. He saved our world."

"Is there anything you can do?" Ginny almost begged.

"What you're doing...sitting with him...is his best medicine."

"Please, Clement."

"I'm sorry. I really wish I could do something, trust me. He's Harry Potter." He paused for a second. "I didn't know you two were together."

Ginny glared at him. "We still are."

"Right, sorry." Clement sighed and turned to leave and then stopped abruptly. "Since he is famous, there's a clearance in order to get into his room. Is there anyone you'd like me to put on the list?"

"Who's on so far?"

"Just you."

Ginny thought for a moment before answering, "My whole family...Hermione Granger...The Lupin's..." She gave a professional nod towards her superior and a quiet, "Thank you." And then turned her heal and went back into the room that held Harry Potter.

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**A/N**: _Yay! There's the first chapter. I hope you like it!!!! Please review! Thanks. _

_I also haven't yet decided if the second ship should be Draco/Hermione or Ron/Hermione. Please let me know what you think! Thanks._


	2. Six Years Later

**Disclaimer**:_ I don't own any of the characters of Harry Potter…sadly. sniffle…hic…sniffle_

_**A/N**: Sorry about the long update. Just to clear things up in the prologue Ginny's 19 and in chapter one she's 25. And thank you for the reviews:_

DeliaDee: Thank you. I'm glad you liked it and I hope you like the first chapter.

ginevra-james: Thanks. Yes, the fic takes place in a post HBP spin off where Harry never broke up with Ginny they just kept their relationship a secret. I'll be going more into that later in the story.

Phoenix Summon: Thank you. I really appreciate your thoughts. I'll see if I can make it slower paced. I guess I got a little carried away in the writing.

Michelle Kent: I hope the 'losing magic' is cleared up in this chapter. I tried to get a good explanation in without making it too obvious. Thanks for letting me know it was confusing. I appreciate it.

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**Chapter One: Six Years Later**

It was a cold and dreary day of September when Ginny Weasley opened her eyes and looked directly into the dormant face of her fiancé and cringed. It was not the first time she had cringed, and the reason that she had not left him out of obvious dislike was questioned again and again by her ever persistent family. His breath was hot on her mouth and even in his sleep he wore a half frown that made his less than pleasant features even more distasteful. Its not that he wasn't a hansom man, for Michael Corner was anything but, but it was the way his expression graced his face so that he always seemed to be frowning. 'A grouchy git,' her brother Ron liked to say.

The red-haired witch rolled away from him slowly, as not to wake Michael, and tip-toed her way out of the bedroom. She would yet again be arriving early at work that day, but it was worth it not to have to sit through breakfast. Closing the door with expert quietness and then walking down that hallway of the eerily silent flat, Ginny sighed to herself. Was this really what she wanted?

"Awake before the rooster crows, I see." Ron's voice said coming from the living room.

Ginny jumped and let out a strangled yelp and dashed as quietly as she could to the source of her fright, only to see her smirking brother's head floating in the floo's green flames. "Awake again, that is. It's not the first time." Ron's voice was thick with amusement and Ginny was fuming.

"Ron," she hissed. "I could have woken 'him' up. You know how I get when I'm startled."

"And by 'him' you mean the git you're engaged to?"

"Ron."

"At least I bloody well say it," Ron continued. "Where as you, my darling sister, are in a perpetual state of denial."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "You sound like Hermione." Ron chuckled at her comment and Ginny stuck out her tongue. It was amazing how two seconds with him could revert her back twenty years.

"Speaking of Hermione," said Ron. "You're invited to her 27th birthday party in three days." He paused for a moment. "Only you, though. If I even see that git, Michael, I'll pummel him with my wand before hexing him and then-"

"I understand," said Ginny as quickly as she could. Ron's threats towards Michael could end up being very long winded and Ginny still had to shower and get dressed and apparate to St. Mungo's. "Good Merlin, Ron. You're going to make me late."

Ron took on a look of horror, though the humor was apparent in his eyes. "Merlin forbid the great Healer Weasley be on time for once. A concept that seems lost to you."

"Oh stop it, Ron. I'm never that early."

"And I suppose you're coming over for a quick breakfast today as well, then?" Ron asked almost innocently.

"It's nothing to twist you knickers over, Ron. I always go to your house for breakfast." Ron frowned and grumbled unintelligibly. "What was that, Ron?"

"I don't wear knickers."

After showering quickly and dressing in her healer's robes, Ginny apparated directly to Ron and Hermione's kitchen where she found her friend and brother eating and arguing at the table. They had been married for the past four years and they still argued with the same zealous they had back in Hogwarts. Ginny chuckled. Despite their fighting, Ron and Hermione loved each other very much. And the moment they saw her, they stopped their quarrel.

"Hello, Ginny," said Hermione with a cheerful smile.

"Morning, Hermione." Ginny replied. She sat herself less than gracefully down at the table and helped herself to the butter and toast displayed in front of her. Then she nodded towards Ron, "Git."

"How am I a git?" Ron asked baffled.

"I'm sure you found a way, darling." Hermione told her husband who was giving Ginny an incredulous look. Hermione sighed. "Am I correct in assuming you flooed her this morning?" Ron nodded slowly. "After I expressly told you not to?" The tall red-head bowed his head like he used to when Molly Weasley caught him sneaking desert before dinner.

"I was informing her of your birthday party..." he trailed off at Hermione and Ginny's combined looks. "And...giving her a bit of a scare."

Changing the subject, Hermione turned in the direction of her sister-in-law. "How's work, Ginny?" The witch in question shrugged and grimaced. "That bad?"

"No," said Ginny. "It's not that bad, really. It's just...there's still a lot of magical depletion from the war." At Ron's inquisitive look she continued, "Its when someone has cast too many spells and they deplete their magical reserves. You remember when barely anyone could do a single spell after the final battle?"

Ron nodded. "Yeah, it felt like it was a sore muscle or something. Horrible, really. Fred and George were miserable…couldn't do spells for weeks, the two of them."

"Well, that's what you had. What they had. What I had...what everyone seemed to have. Except we recovered. Some people used so much of their magic, its still recovering to this day...six years later." Ginny had gotten used to explaining her work. It was after all a new wing in St. Mungo's. Before the war, no one had even heard of magical depletion.

Ron nodded again. "So that's what Harry's got, right?"

The room was silent except for Hermione hitting the back of Ron's head with the Daily Prophet.

"Yeah," said Ginny in a small voice. "Except he's got the worst case they've seen." Her voice broke a bit. "They are making progress though...Their making good progress. They expect him to wake up soon, actually. Or at least their hoping…" Ginny cleared her throat. "I should be going now."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Ginny, you've only just arrived," she reasoned. "And you haven't even touched your toast. Besides, I made extra knowing you were going to be here. You don't want all this extra food to go to waist."

Ginny looked at her sister-in-law with a raised eyebrow. "Food goes to waist in a house with Ron living in it? I find that doubtful." But at Hermione's look, she stayed where she was and took a bite of her toast for good measure. The bushy haired witch smiled at her.

Ron looked indignant. "You wouldn't be commenting on my eating if you'd seen what Hermione can put away recently," he told his sister. "She's been eating more than me, lately and-" But he stopped talking abruptly when, for the second time, Hermione brought the Daily Prophet down on his head. "Will you stop that, woman?!"

"Don't call me woman! I'm your wife!"

"Then don't hit me over the head with the bloody paper!"

And they were off again. Ginny sighed. It was best just to grab her toast and apparate to St. Mungo's without incident at this point. Better than wait around and have something come flying at her head. So as quietly as she could she snuck out of the room in very much the same manner she had left her sleeping fiancé earlier that morning. Just in time too. As soon as she was safely in the other room she heard the distinct sound of a braking dish.

"Merlin," she whispered to herself in relief. "That was close."

Then she heard Ron's voice bellow through the walls. "What the bloody hell was that for?!"

"I don't know..." Hermione's voice said a bit softer. Ginny poked her head back through the door to see what was going on. "I honestly didn't mean to levitate that cup," the brown haired witch astonished tone carried through the silence. "I've never lost control of my magic like that."

Ron snorted disbelievingly. "As if you didn't mean for that to collide with my head."

"I didn't," Hermione almost whispered. She stepped towards Ron, but he took a step backwards. "I love you. I honestly...didn't mean for that to happen." Ron looked skeptical. "Ron," Hermione told him firmly. "I love you. I wouldn't ever wish you harm."

"Spare me, Hermione." Ron said sadly. "We've been married for four years now. We argue all the time...you were just angry."

"It's never happened before," Hermione argued quietly, though most of the conviction was gone from her voice. "Not like that. Never like that..." Ginny stared at the couple wide-eyed. For all her years of knowing them, she had never seen them after an argument. Cautiously, the youngest Weasley walked back into the kitchen. Her two family members, however, ignored her presence. "I don't know what's wrong with me," Hermione continued.

"It's all right," Ron sighed. "It was just a bit out of control...probably emotions is all. Ginny had just been talking about Harry…He was…is a good friend of ours. It's hard to hear about him." Hermione nodded slowly and walked over to her husbands waiting arms. They hugged warmly and Ginny let out the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. "Anyway," Ron said in afterthought while kissing the top of his wife's head. "It's not like you're pregnant."

Hermione gasped.

Ginny gasped.

Ron paled.

"Ginny!" Hermione yelled unexpectedly. Both of the Weasley siblings jumped. "You're a healer!" Her voice had taken on a slightly hysterical quality. Ginny could only nod to affirm Hermione's proclamation, she didn't trust her voice. "Tell me! Am I?! Am I pregnant?!"

"Stop yelling," Ron squeaked and then cleared his throat. "Stop yelling, Hermione."

"Right," Hermione said in her normal voice. "Sorry." Then she turned and looked expectantly at Ginny. "Well?" She gestured at her stomach wildly.

Ginny smoothed her healer's robes at her sides and cast her eyes downwards. "I'm not a pre-natal healer, Hermione," she told her sister-in-law. "I work in spell exhaustion. It's very different." Hermione glared at her. "I'd be happy to set you up with someone that is in the pre-natal division, though."

"Are you telling me you've never learned the spell?"

"Hermione," Ginny pouted, backing away from the potentially pregnant witch. She had seen Fleur pregnant, and was not about to get too close. "It's a lot more complicated then that. There's a potion…and then a spell…And besides...I'm going to be late for work." Realizing that Ginny was trying to evade her, Hermione ran at her. Before she could catch her husband's younger sister, though, Ginny dissapparated right out from in front of her.

"Ginny!" A familiar voice called out to her the moment she was in St. Mungo's. Ginny turned around and looked up to the friendly face of Colin Creevey with a smile. Easily her best friend, Colin was at least a head taller than her now and surprisingly enough he was going out with Gabrielle Delacour. "You're right on time," Colin commented.

"Hello Colin," she said with a smile. It wasn't every day she saw her best friend. Especially with her work filled days and her possessive and jealous fiancé who liked to take up her evenings.

"What brings you to St. Mungo's?"

"Actually," Colin said adopting a slightly formal tone. "I'm here to write about you." At Ginny's confused tone he elaborated. "The Prophet wants to do a segment on you because of your new patient." They walked through the lobby to the lift and pressed the newly added sixth floor for magic exhaustion.

"What do you mean my new patient?" Ginny asked baffled. "I have a new patient?"

Colin stared down at his best friend sympathetically. She could tell he didn't want to be the one to break the news to her as he probably thought she was going to react badly to it. Unfortunately it only made her want to know more. "Ginny," he said reluctantly. "I can't believe they didn't tell you this..."

"Tell me what?" Ginny asked. Her mind was running away with her. She had seen hundreds of patients in the last six years...well five years really...there had been one year where she had been unable to work. 'Please not Harry', her mind repeated over and over again. 'Please not Harry…I won't be able to handle it if it's Harry…'

"They've given you Harry."

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**A/N**: _I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I'll try to post regularly…once every two weeks. I know it's not a lot but school is not so wonderful at the moment. Please review. Thanks!_

_PS: Happy Halloween!_


	3. Assignment

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing of the Harry Potter characters. I do, however, own my original characters. Hehe. Their mine!

**A/N**: _Thank you so much to those of you who reviewed! It means so much to me._

HermesThriceGreat: I'm so glad you liked it! Thank you for reviewing.

Miss-Fortunate: Yay! Thanks! I hope you like where I go with it.

Ginevra-james: Sorry. I didn't mean to leave a cliff there. Hopefully a bit of that is resolved in this chapter. Thanks for reviewing!

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**Chapter Two: Assignment**

She hadn't asked for Harry Potter to be her patient, nor did she ever want the press that went with that. She had loved...still loved him too much to see him. And her philosophy for the last five years had somewhat of a strict mandate which clearly dictated that seeing him was out of the question. It was not that she didn't crave to see him, because she did. And it was not that seeing him would make her never want to leave, because that was irrelevant. But more, seeing Harry would force her to reevaluate her relationship with Michael...and she didn't want to do that.

Unfortunately for Ginny, though, avoiding someone because they were your ex was not a valid excuse to pass up a patient. And so her boss merrily told her that, "At least it will make it less awkward when you see him naked." And Ginny had huffed away from his office thinking to herself sarcastically, 'Well that's reassuring."

And so there she sat at eight thirty in the morning, facing Colin while he took out his quill and notepad, at a little table on the visitor's floor waiting for the interview to commence. She was visibly upset and nursing her woes in a cup of tea she had poured firewhiskey into. Colin, too, wore a downcast expression as it was his best friend he was about to interrogate for the article.

"I'm sorry Ginny," he said quickly while gesturing towards his notepad. "Some of these questions are...well...they're insensitive. And the hospital already said it would be alright for an exclusive so...you're required to answer them." Ginny swallowed hard and nodded.

"That's fine, Colin." Ginny told him. "Let's just get this over with." At his worried glance, she added, "I'm not upset with you."

"Alright. Question number one: How long did you date Harry?"

Ginny sighed. They were probably all questions like that, personal and to the point, and knowing Colin's boss they were worse even. Who in their right mind made Rita Skeeter the head of all celebrity news? Realizing that Colin would need an answer, Ginny cleared her throat.

"We started dating my fifth year," she said. "But after Professor Dumbledore was killed, we officially cut it off so that I wouldn't be a target for you-know-who. I didn't want to stop it publicly...but he insisted." She paused. "We continued it up until...he was hurt. And I suppose that's when people figured out we were together. I refused to leave him for a year..." Her voice broke but she pushed on all the while cursing the publicity clause she had signed when she first started working with the hospital. "I suppose we were together five years then..."

Colin nodded while scribbling furiously on the parchment in front of him. "And were you ever...er...intimate?" Ginny looked up at Colin. Who came up with these questions? "I'm sorry Ginny," Colin said apologetically. "It's supposed to be an exclusive."

"Do I have to answer that?" Ginny asked. Colin nodded. "Will the words 'no comment' suffice?" She asked hopefully.

"Ginny," Colin said while leaning back in his chair. "The words 'no comment' will put up a lot of rumors and speculation. You don't want to be accused of sending off your love child to live with his aunt and uncle. The more facts you give, the less your reputation will-"

"Alright." Ginny toyed with the wording in her head for a second before continuing. "We...we were in the middle of a war. He was constantly leaving on missions to go...retrieve things. He told me that you-know-who had certain objects that if destroyed would help Harry defeat him. And then in my seventh year I became a Healer in Training...and suddenly both of our lives were on the line. We didn't know if we both were going to come out of the battles alive." She paused.

"The question, Ginny." Colin reminded her.

"Yes," said Ginny finally. "Yes, we were."

"And were your parents alright with that?"

"I'm not sure they knew," Ginny confessed. "I'm almost positive everyone around us suspected that we were dating...but never that we were er...well..." Both of their cheeks went as red as Ginny's hair and Colin nodded in understanding. She didn't have to say anything else on the matter.

"Next question," said Colin. Ginny nodded and took a sip of her tea and firewhiskey combination. "How do you feel about tending to him now?"

"I don't know...Harry will always be my first love." She shook her head with a sad laugh. "I really don't know how I feel about this, Colin. I sat with him for a year waiting for him to wake up...after everyone else had just given up on him, I stayed." She took another sip of her alcoholic tea. "His file is confidential...no one except his immediate healers know the extent of his injuries. And I'm not sure if I'm ready...if I'll ever be ready to know what it says."

"I know what you mean," Colin sighed miserably. It was no secret that he had always looked up to Harry, and to know that Harry was bedridden and hadn't woken up for six years disturbed them both greatly. "I've heard he's getting better, though."

"He is," said Ginny. "He might even wake up at some point. They're hoping..."

"What about you? What are you hoping?"

"On or off the record?"

Colin smiled a little. "How about both."

"On the record I'd really like him to wake up," she said quickly. And then her tone changed and her voice became fainter. "Off the record...so much has changed. It would complicate things." Colin nodded knowingly.

"It's alright, Ginny." Colin told her. "You're engaged to Michael, and the last thing Harry remembers is you being with him...there would be confusion. And that's the last thing you need. Of course you could just dump Michael and get back with Harry." Colin's hopeful tone diminished at Ginny's fiery look. "But that's a conversation for another time."

"No one likes him," said Ginny. "Why does no one like him?"

"Ginny," Colin said disbelievingly. "You live with the idiot and you're asking me why no one likes him?" Ginny frowned. Colin did have a point.

"Next question," was all she said.

It was an hour later that they finally finished, and after a couple rolls of film from Colin's trusted camera, the young reporter was sure that he had gotten the best pictures and interview he could have. Ginny, emotionally drained from talking about Harry, bid goodbye to her best friend and decided to speak to her boss about taking the day off. She deserved it.

"Clement?" Ginny asked while knocking on his office door. She had long since dropped formalities with her superior and after working under him for so long they had developed a sort of friendship.

"Come in, Ginny," Clement's voice called from the other side of the door. Ginny walked in tentatively. "Are you going to try to pass of Potter again?" Ginny shook her head. "Good," he said frankly. "Because we could use your expertise."

Ginny looked at him quizzically. "I'm not even a senior healer, Clement. What expertise do I have to offer?"

"Well, you do know him." The older man said as if it were obvious. He sat on his desk rather than behind it and despite hospital protocol, he was smoking a pipe, which blue smoke was rising out of. He reminded her a bit of Dumbledore, actually. "So why did you come in here? If you're not going to try and weasel out of taking Potter, that is."

Ginny cringed as he said 'weasel', memories of Malfoy's taunts from Hogwarts ever unpleasant in her mind. "Er...I have a headache, actually. I might be coming down with something, and I wouldn't want to give the patients anything." The lie sounded good enough in itself, but Clement was not fooled.

"I'll give you the rest of the morning off. How's that?" The aged wizard told her. "I expect you back and in Mr. Potter's room for his daily evaluation at one thirty sharp. I'll fill you in on the extent of his situation then."

"Yes, Healer Rundell," Ginny said sourly. Clement laughed at her behavior and she rolled her eyes. There really was no being mad at the man. "I'll see you at one thirty then." She turned to leave but Clement cleared his throat and she turned back around. "Yes, Clement?"

"Your sister-in-law came by."

Ginny paled. "Hermione Weasley?"

"Yes." All remaining color left Ginny's face. "She wanted to talk to you, but I told her you were busy." Clement smiled brightly, "She wanted me to tell you that you'll be having a niece or nephew in oh...seven and a half months or so." Ginny smiled as well. That would be nice. No one in her family had had a child since Fleur's second son three years before. It would be nice to have a small baby in the family again. "She also asked if you could be her personal healer," Clement continued. Ginny's smile faded instantly.

"What did you say to her?" asked Ginny already knowing the answer. It just wasn't her day.

"Well you are family," reasoned her superior. "I can see why she would want you to attend to her. I saw nothing wrong with it. Your first checkup will be this afternoon at three fifteen in the pre-natal division. Another reason for you not to go home this morning." His smiled turned inquisitive. "You do remember your training don't you?"

"Yes," Ginny grumbled. Internally she shivered. 'I have to see Harry and a pregnant Hermione all in one day,' she thought with a silent groan. 'It will be a wonder if I last until dinner.'

"Excellent," Clement told her. "And I'm sure you will have fun tracking the baby's progress. So...off with you. Enjoy your little break. We have a lot of work to do this afternoon." And with a final wave he shooed her out of the office and into the less than crowded hallway of the sixth floor. There were only a few patients left in the hall that had magical depletion. The floor in itself was dedicated to war injuries alone, and so there were other groups such as those who had been kissed by dementors, or spill over spell damage from the fourth floor.

Ginny walked along the hallway deep in her own thoughts. It would be so easy to just go into Harry's room and see him. Ron and Hermione visited him twice a month and even her mum went regularly. She knew the room by heart. She had been there when they had moved him into it. So why didn't she just go?

Making up her mind, she changed her direction and walked to the private rooms at the other end of the hallway. Memories, unbidden, flooded her mind and though she tried to push them away, she failed miserably. 'Breath, Ginny,' she told herself silently. 'Breath.' She reached the door and the guard that had been placed there six years ago. "Hello Jason."

Jason, the guard in question, looked up with surprise splayed across his slightly overweight face. "Ginny?" She nodded, smiling nervously. "I haven't seen you near this door...for years."

"I've been assigned to him," Ginny said as if it would explain her long absence. It didn't, of course, but Jason didn't press her.

"Go right on in," was all he said. Ginny thanked him quietly and opened the door. The room looked practically the same as she remembered it. The hospital bed was in the far corner next to a sofa, which appeared to be new. There was a long potions stand near the door and a glass table in the center that held many vases all filled with flowers. The room smelled very nice as well, but she didn't notice. Ginny's full attention was given to the man lying in the bed. The soft light from the storm outside and the gentle drops of the rain against the glass seemed to lull her closer to him as he lay unmoving. His hair was as unruly as ever and it seemed that no one had given him a shaving spell in a couple of days because a layer of stubble coated his chin and cheeks.

"Harry?" She called to him softly. He didn't respond. She hadn't really expected him to. And suddenly the guilt of the last five years pelted down on her. Why hadn't she at least seen him? She strode over to the left side of him as quickly as she could and reached for his hand. It was warm. "Merlin, I've missed you." She breathed softly. "Five years is a long time."

Not knowing what to do, she sat down beside him and let her weight on the bed incline his body slightly towards hers. She really hadn't known just how much she had missed him until now. And with that realization, a sob was wretched forward from her soul. Ginny wasn't sure how long she cried over him. His handsome face, peaceful and relaxed from sleeping, knew nothing of her sadness and it seemed to further fuel her tears.

She looked down at the diamond ring on her finger. "You were supposed to have given me this," she confided quietly to him. "I had made all these plans, Harry. Ever since I was a little girl and Mum had told me stories about you... And I know you told me not to count on you living, Harry. But I did." Overpowered by tears she stopped talking for a moment to collect herself. "How could I have gone five years without seeing you?"

"It's a good question," someone said from behind her. Ginny jumped and muffled her scream by clasping the hand, that wasn't holding Harry's, to her mouth. Turning her head around with enough force to make it hurt, she eyed the person behind her suspiciously, only to recognize it a second later as her mother.

"Mum!" Ginny exclaimed. "You know better than to sneak up on me. What are you doing here?"

Molly Weasley didn't answer right away. Instead she took the flowers that had been resting on her arm, and placed them in one of the many vases on the glass table. "I could ask you the same question, dear." She said softly. "I haven't seen you in this room in years."

"I know," said Ginny.

Molly walked over to her daughter and sat across from her on the sofa. "What brought about this change?"

Ginny bit her lip. "I've been assigned to Harry. I'm his new healer," she stated.

"It didn't look like you were doing much healing," commented her mother. Ginny took her eyes off of Molly gradually and looked back down at Harry. He hadn't moved since she had come in the room and although she knew he was in a coma, it looked as though she could shake him lightly and he would spring to life. "Oh no," Molly observed. "I've seen that look before."

"What look?" Ginny asked while looking away.

"You still love him, don't you?" Molly implored. "Don't you, Ginny?"

"I'm engaged to Michael," Ginny protested as if it were an excuse or an answer to her mother's question.

"I didn't ask you who you were engaged to, Ginevra." Molly told her curtly. Ginny shivered at her full name. No one called her Ginevra except Michael. "I asked who you loved?" But before Ginny could contemplate, let alone answer Molly's inquiry, the door opened and both women looked up to see the bland face of Michael Corner.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," he drawled without sounding at all apologetic. Both Weasley females cringed. "Ginevra, Healer Rundell just flooed the flat. He said he gave you a break until the end of lunch. I thought I'd take you out." He paused. "What are you doing in here?"

Molly and her daughter exchanged a look before the older woman said, "Ginny was just accompanying me to see Harry. It's been so long since she's seen him, and I brought extra flowers today. I needed the help." Michael nodded.

"Let's go, Ginevra."

"Aren't you going to ask me if I'd like to go?" Ginny asked testily. She hated it when he just assumed she would go anywhere with him. Didn't he understand that she missed breakfast on purpose? Why would she want to see him for lunch?

"I didn't see you for breakfast," Michael pointed out as if she didn't already know. "And I have to talk to you about the wedding. And do I really need to ask? We're engaged."

"Of course you need to ask," said Ginny at the same time as Molly said, "Wedding?" Michael seemed confused as to whom to answer first.

"We're moving up the wedding."

"We are?" Asked Ginny at the same time as her mother said, "What?" Again, Michael looked confused. He turned his head from one woman to the other before finally giving up.

"Yes. That's what we need to talk about over lunch. Now, I'll humor you. Would you like to go to lunch?" Ginny rolled her eyes and stood up, feeling overall colder as she let go of Harry's hand.

"I'm not laughing."

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**A/N**:_ I hope you liked it. I wasn't going to add another chapter before Halloween, but I guess the muse took over. Go muse!_


	4. Lunch with Corner

**Disclaimer**: Harry Potter and his friends and fellow characters are in no way mine. Sad but true. Their actions, however, are a different story. Evil laugh

**A/N**: _And here it is the third chapter. I hope everyone likes it! Ginny shows Michael exactly what he's getting into by marrying a Weasley! And thank you to the reviews:_

Michelle Kent: I'm sorry about the spelling. I'm really working on it. I hope this is better. Thanks for reviewing!

ReviewsGalore: Yay! Thanks for the score. 8.75/10 is better than my last history test! So that's exiting! Thank you for your review!

Armywife012205: Thank you! I'm so happy you like it! I hope you like this next chapter too! Thanks for reviewing!

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**Chapter Three: Lunch with Corner**

Leaving Harry had proved more difficult than Ginny had ever imagined. Her hand was clasped in Michael's and it felt wrong somehow. Not that it had ever felt right...but after five years of not holding the hand she was supposed to, Michael's hand felt odd. It was cold, for one. And his grip was too tight. And where, with Harry, they had always walked side by side, Michael insisted on walking in front of her.

So there she was being pulled into the lift of St. Mungo's by her hand. The same hand that had held Harry's not a minute earlier, and protested at having to leave the warmth he provided. As soon as they were in the lift and the doors had closed behind them, Michael turned to her angrily.

"What were you doing in there, Ginevra?" He demanded harshly. She could see the jealousy in his eyes and she took a step back from him; something somewhat difficult to accomplish as they were joined at the hands.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she evaded. "I was with my Mum."

"I can always tell when you lie."

"You're jealous!" His grip tightened on her hand almost painfully and she pulled out her wand. "Michael. I'm not your whipping girl. Let go!" Realizing what he was doing, he let go abruptly and focused his eyes on the wand that was now pushing not so gently into his stomach. "Back off or I'll hex you."

He backed away. "I'm sorry...It's just seeing you in there..." But Ginny would have none of it.

"It's not an excuse to break my hand," she shot back.

"I know what this is," Michael grinned suddenly, taking Ginny completely by surprise. She raised her wand so that it was level with his throat and gaped at his jubilant face. "You're having pre-wedding jitters, aren't you?" And then he pulled her into a startling hug while her wand was flipped out of her hand by the impact. "I' m sorry I responded badly. You should have said that you were nervous about the wedding instead of being evasive."

Ginny tensed slightly and then relented to the hug. They were engaged after all. She had accepted his proposal nearly six months ago. This is what she had signed up for... "I'm sorry, Michael. You're right. That must be it." She could feel him smiling over her shoulder as they continued to embrace. "You only just told me you're moving up the wedding," she reasoned with him. "I must have panicked."

He pulled back and cupped her check in his hand. "It's understandable. And I forgive you."

After Ginny picked up her wand and pocketed it, they stood in silence. The remainder of the travel down the lift was short, but the tension was palpable. Or at least the tension coming from Ginny; Michael was still convinced that she was just nervous about the wedding and he disregarded any awkwardness between them as due to her bridal fears. Remembering that they were leaving the hospital, Ginny quickly transfigured her healers robes into muggle clothing.

They exited St. Mungo's through the visitor's entrance and as soon as they left the building it was apparent just how bad the weather was. Rain was coming down so hard that it was difficult to see, and there were the distinct rumbles of thunder in the air. Such tempest seemed to reflect the way Ginny felt quite nicely and she tilted up her head and basked in the cold wet weather for a moment.

"Michael, you should try this," Ginny said as she drenched herself. Her red hair became wet and stringy down her back and her makeup that had been washed down her cheeks from crying was being cleaned off her face. It was something she would have said to Harry. Something she would have said, and he would have done with her. And together they would have gotten so wet and cold that they would have woken up sick the next day, but it was nothing a pepper-up potion wouldn't have fixed. And they would have had fun...and fallen more and more in love with each other in the process.

"You're going to get sick," Michael said quickly shrugging off his jacket and handing it to her. Of the two of them he was the only one who had remembered to conjure an umbrella before they went out to Muggle London. She put on the jacket grudgingly and stepped next to him under the umbrella. "There," he told her. "That's better, isn't it?"

"Yeah," said Ginny forcing a smile. "It's much better." They walked in silence for a small while. Ginny didn't mind. Her thoughts turned to Harry. She remembered when they used to swim in the lake by the Burrow. They had been carefree in those moments. It had been just the two of them... No war. No Voldemort. No looming destiny in the shape of a final battle. Suddenly she realized Michael had been talking. "What was that?"

"I asked you if you'd like Italian. Would you?" He repeated. In front of them was a small but elegant Italian restaurant that was surprisingly full for it being only eleven o'clock. If this was the pre-lunch crowd, Ginny figured it had wonderful food.

"Sure," said Ginny. "It sounds nice."

They walked into the restaurant and were greeted by a muggle waiter. "Right this way," he said. "Here you are at table six. Would you like drinks to start with, or would you like the menu right away?"

"How about just the drinks? It's a bit early for lunch." Michael said as he sat down. "What would you like to drink, Ginevra?" Ginny shrugged and sat herself across from him. She didn't know much about muggle drinks. "A glass of wine then. Perhaps a merlot?"

"Right away, sir." The waiter said before hurrying away.

"So what's this about the wedding being moved up?" Ginny asked.

Michael grinned. "Right to business, I see." Ginny looked at him expectantly. "Well, I was speaking with the planner, and she said that winter weddings were more in style."

"I told you I wanted a summer wedding."

"I can't wait that long," revealed Michael. "And I know you said you wanted to wait at least a year before we got married, but I don't know if I can. You see, I'm in love with you. I always have been. Ever since we went out in my fifth year..." Ginny suddenly wished she had ordered water. It wasn't fair of her to put Michael through this. Even though he had practically demanded she marry him... "What do you say?"

The question caught her off guard. "I...I...I still want a summer wedding."

"I already changed the plans."

"You what!?" She said nearly leaping out of the chair. At the strange looks she received from the muggles around her, though, she lowered her voice. "You what?"

"Ginevra," Michael said nervously. He clearly hadn't expected her to be upset about this. "I thought it was implied in 'I've changed the wedding date'. And besides, that's what couples who are in love do. They get married."

"I'm not saying no to the wedding, Michael. I just don't think I'm ready to get married." 'To you,' her mind filled in. Seeing Harry had done exactly what she had thought it would. It brought back all the love for him she had suppressed, and it made her stare at Michael Corner in the face and think, 'I don't want to be Ginevra Corner. I want to be Ginny Potter.'

"Look," Michael proposed. "I set the date for just before Christmas. We have...let see...just under four months. That should be enough time to get used to the idea." Their wine arrived and Michael thanked the waiter quietly before continuing his train of thought. "I have it set up at Hogwarts. Just where you wanted it." He smiled trying to allay her worry but it only increased her upset.

"Not Hogwarts," she panicked. That was where Harry told her he wanted to get married seven years before on one of the rare occasions that he actually talked to her about his future. In turn it had become her favorite location for a wedding. "Erm...how about at your parent's house, like you suggested." Michael frowned.

"I want to make you happy, Ginevra. You told me Hogwarts."

"Did I?" Ginny asked faintly. "Well, I don't like the idea anymore. And besides, you like your parent's house… And I like your parent's house. It's a nice house. It's big, nice yard, pretty trees, lots of grass," she babbled.

"Wonderful," said Michael. "I'll be sure to tell them." A pause. "Are you sure you want this?"

"Yes, yes," Ginny assured quickly. Anything to get him off of Hogwarts or everything for that matter that related to Harry. Her mind seemed to be going there more and more in the last day than it had in several years. "Your parent's house will be lovely in the winter."

Michael smiled and took a sip of his wine. "Let's discuss your bridesmaids. You haven't told me who you'd like, yet." Ginny smiled stiffly. It was going to be a very long lunch indeed.

"Erm...I was thinking about Hermione," said Ginny. "And perhaps Luna and Gabrielle."

"Only three?"

"Well," Ginny truly smiled for the first time since she had sat down. "There's always Colin. We could put him in a gown as well, but I can see how that might go over badly." Michael laughed.

"Don't worry, Ginevra," Michael assured still chuckling. "Colin can be on my side as long as you let Terry and Justin bring their dates for yours. And do you still like the design for the bridesmaids?"

"Oh no, we're going to have to alter one of them. Hermione's pregnant." Michael looked surprised.

"She is?"

"Er...yeah. We found out today -She found out today...and then told me about it," Ginny covered quickly. The last thing she wanted was for Michael to know that she went to Ron's for breakfast everyday instead of going to the early shift at work like she told him. When thinking about her life, Ginny surmised it was actually very complicated. Or at least as complicated as being engaged to a man she wasn't sure if she loved could be.

"Oh wow," said Michael as if he wasn't sure how to respond to the news. "Good on Ron, then." And then he chose the exact moment when Ginny was taking a large drink of wine to say, "I was hoping we could...you know...do the same? We should have a baby by the end of next year, actually." Needless to say the wine didn't stay in her mouth very long.

"What!?" For a second time all the muggles in the restaurant were looking at her strangely. Michael shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but said nothing. Her reaction seemed to have shocked him into silence. "First you tell me that you've advanced our wedding! And then you practically force the prospect of motherhood on me!" She fought the urge to bring out her wand, muggles be damned, and give him a good piece of her mind. "What's the matter with you!?" Several muggles in the restaurant clapped and Ginny blushed accordingly, but her eyes held their fury towards her betrothed. He, however didn't back down and glared right back.

"Your just nervous about the wedding," Michael said finally looking away from her. She scoffed. "Why don't we talk about this at a different time."

"Michael!" Ginny exclaimed. "You just told me to bear your child. You can't simply say that and then refuse to talk about it." She shook her head. "And we can't just 'have a baby by the end of next year'. It's much more complicated than that. It requires planning-"

"It's already been planned," he assured her.

"Planned it along with the impromptu wedding, have you?" Her voice was shaking, and on the verge of tears. "Did it come in before or after the flowers!?"

"You're being unreasonable."

"I'm being unreasonable? What in Merlin's name has gotten into you?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

"My parents are willing to pay a great sum to us if we start a family," he told her somewhat coldly. "And we need the m-"

"Oh so this is about money, is it?" Ginny said back. "Do you really want to start a family on those morals?"

"This isn't about morals, Ginevra." Michael sighed.

"Well maybe it should be."

"Don't be naive, Ginevra." said Michael. "We live in a small apartment, and I refuse to be poor for the rest of my life; the rest of our lives. You've seen my parent's house. You know how I grew up." He reached across the table and gently lifted Ginny's down turned chin with his extended fingers. She turned away. "No one's happy if they're poor. Can you be happy and poor?"

Ginny's mind flashed to her parents and brothers. She remembered her childhood and memory after memory of everyone smiling. Then she stared at him dead on in the face and stood from the table.

"Yes," was the last thing she said to him before sliding off his jacket and walking out into the rain.

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**A/N:** _I hope you liked it! It was definitely fun writing it. No doubt about it. I've given up not trying to upload before Halloween. I guess the story is just meant to be here. I keep writing more!_

_Please review! It really inspiring! And that you so much for reading this far!_


	5. Harry's Dream

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and his fellow characters are not at all mine. Sad, but true.

**A/N:**_ Hi everyone! Thank you so much for reviewing! I'm glad some people really got into it with Michael Corner. Hehe. He's not over yet, he still has a couple more chapters to make an ass out of himself. This chapter is about where Harry's been for the last six years. Enjoy!_

Ballad.AsuCaga: Thanks for reviewing! Haha, yeah Michael is going to get his comeuppance. No worries about that.

Grey Eyed Beauty: Don't worry, I don't like seeing Michael and Ginny together either. But I have to keep them together a little longer so she can kick his ass! Thanks for reviewing.

The-irish-redhead: I don't like Michael either. Harry will wake up in…chapter eight. Thanks for your review!

Sakura Lisel: Thanks for reviewing! Michael is really going to get it in chapter six! You'll see.

Ginevra-james: I'm really happy you like it! Yay! And I don't like writing Michael and Ginny together anymore than you like reading it. Hehe. Thanks for reviewing!

Armywife012205: Thank you! I'm so happy you liked it! I hope you still do. Thanks for reviewing!

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**Chapter Four: Harry's Dream**

A tall, well built man with jet black hair and stunning green eyes sat at a small wooden table for four outside a picturesque house. The house was painted white, and all the windows had little blue shutters that matched the blue front door that stood at the house's middle. He sat, twirling his glasses in between his fingers, while he waited for three specific people to come out of the door. And sure enough before boredom overtook him completely, the three people he had been waiting on emerged from the house carrying what was going to be a magnificent lunch.

"Enjoying the day, Harry?" Sirius Black asked his godson, while he put four butterbeers down on the table and sat down. He looked wholesome and cheerful, something Harry hadn't seen very often while he was alive. Harry put back on his glasses and smiled at his godfather and the other two people joining them not far behind. "Letting us slave away for your meal while you-"

"Oh shut it, Sirius," the melodic voice of Lily Potter laughed as she, too, walked towards the table with food in her arms. "You didn't help cook either. All you did was sit around the kitchen and try to eat everything." Sirius pouted and widened his eyes to look suspiciously like his counterpart Padfoot. "And don't even try the pout."

"Oh but Lily, my wondrous flower," Sirius protested in mock offence. "I offered my assistance to you and you declined."

"Of course she declined," James Potter shot back playfully to his best friend. "She's tasted your cooking."

Lily and James placed the salad and roast chicken on the table smoothly and both sat down in sync while looking at their son. The unspoken words they wanted to say had been refuted everyday for the last six years and so they didn't even bother, but the playful demeanor vanished. Harry sighed.

"Don't," Harry told them quietly. "I'm not ready to leave. Not yet."

"And when will you be ready, Harry?" His mother asked in the same delicate tone. "We'll be here when you get back. We have no where else to go." Harry gave her a suspicious look and she shrugged. "Well besides visiting everyone else in the afterlife, I mean." Harry shook his head.

"You can't ask me to give this up, Mum."

"Harry-" Lily began, but Sirius held up his hand to silence her.

"If he's not ready Lily, than he's not ready. Life was hard on him. He watched us all die," Sirius reasoned. "And watched in the literal sense as well. So what if he needs a bit of a break? I know I would."

James frowned. "A break is a month, Padfoot. Not six years."

"Prongs."

"I couldn't have gone back even if I had wanted to," said Harry. "You remember how I was a year ago."

"Well," Lily said back. "That was a year ago. Now you're better from whatever you had and you can go back."

"Can we just...not talk about this? Please?" Harry pleaded. "I will go back. I promise. Just...just not yet."

"Alright, son," James relented. Lily, too, nodded her acceptance and dropped the conversation. The look in her green eyes however told Harry that they would be continuing at a later time. Changing the subject, James once again inhabited a carefree smile. "Ah Padfoot, mate, I just remembered the first time you broke a girls heart."

"What brought this on?" Sirius asked quizzically.

"Dunno," James said while his smile turned mischievous. "But it was hilarious."

Sirius took on a mischievous smile as well and laughed heartily. "You mean that Rose chit?"

Lily rolled her eyes, "Oh no, you mean the Griffindor three years older than us?" She looked to Harry and mouthed the word, 'disaster' to which her son smiled.

"What happened?" asked Harry, his voice laden with anticipation. It was moments like these that he would miss when he left; the marauders reminiscing on their golden days. And the pranks that they pulled around the after life were not half bad as well. Just the other day, they had gone to a particularly crowded pub in the after life and bewitched people's socks to say exactly what they were thinking at the time. Needless to say Lily had not been happy. Though, she rarely was when the two of them were pulling pranks.

"Padfoot here had courted this girl for two weeks. He was in fourth year, and she was in seventh. But she refused to go out with him...of course she relented though, after persistent badgering." James told while laughing.

Sirius winked at Harry. "It's my devilishly handsome good looks."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Sirius, you wouldn't leave her alone."

"She couldn't resist me," Sirius said stubbornly.

"Anyway," James continued. "She finally agreed to date him, and after a week he ditches her. But by this point she really liked him and she begged for him back." James sighed dramatically. "But Padfoot here would have none of it. And so he told her, in front of the school mind you, that she was terrible-"

"Not in front of Harry," Lily scolded her husband. James grinned.

"Well you get the idea." James went on and Harry blushed. "She did have to be a seventh year, though. She told him, also in front of the school, that he would never get a date again."

"I had three of them lining up after that," Sirius mock whispered to Harry. "Your mother included." All four of them laughed heartily. They knew for a fact that Lily was one of the only girls in Hogwarts at their time that Sirius never went after; mainly because of James' near obsession with her. "No really," Sirius said calming down from his laughter with a puzzled grin on his face. He was clearly still there in his mind. "The crazed chit had enemies. Bloody gorgeous one's at that." He nodded towards James. "Remember Veronica?"

James smiled wistfully and nodded, but after catching Lily stare he backpedaled, "She was very, very ugly. Very ugly. Warts, and whatnot."

"Did you ever fall in love, Sirius?" asked Harry. Sirius pondered the question and then shook his head. Lily however answered the question for him, much to Sirius's disapproval.

"He did," Lily said with a smirk of her own appearing. "And he went out with her in secret for nearly three years. He thought no one knew." She winked at her son. "Unfortunately for Sirius, here, it was James that finally caught them together. And James likes nothing more than a good prank."

"I had a reputation to uphold," Sirius grumbled. "If people knew I'd carried on a serious relationship..."

"But you were carrying on a Sirius relationship," James chuckled. "All the time in fact." Three separate cherry tomatoes hit him from different angles. After the tenth Sirius/serious joke had been made however long ago, it just hadn't been funny anymore.

Lily changed the subject by pouting. "Does anyone like my cooking?" Three male heads nodded at once.

"It's delicious, Mum." said Harry.

"Needs salt," Sirius drawled in a fashion that would have made Draco Malfoy proud. Three separate cherry tomatoes hit him from different angles in the same way they had hit James just moments before. "Oi," he pouted as one of them exploded as one of them exploded over his eye. "Just because I'm dead doesn't mean you have to blind me." He turned to the glaring red haired witch at the table and smiled. "It's amazing, Lily. You could give Molly Weasley a run for her galleons." He took a bite for emphasis. "Very good."

"You'd better say that," Lily scolded lightly, but they all knew she was teasing him. They were very playful, the two marauders and the honorary member of their group. "I could always throw you out."

"Where would I live?" asked Sirius in mock horror.

James smirked. "You could live with your parents." Sirius frowned and Harry burst out laughing. "Or with your...brother."

"Or with your parents," Sirius suggested and watched with humor as James' face fell into a frown of his own. "Oh Prongsy-poo, what's the matter with staying with your parents?"

"They pamper you," James grumbled. It was true. The late, late, Mr. and Mrs. Potter pampered anyone they considered family, Sirius being one of them. And while it was often very nice to be doted on, the sheer hours of care they instilled in everyone around them could become quite irritating. That is...to everyone who wasn't Sirius Black, who lapped up the attention like the starved pup he was.

"Harry likes them," Sirius countered, but the intent was gone in his eyes and instead he focused on eating as much chicken off of his plate as possible. In Harry's opinion he seemed to be further convincing Lily of throwing him out for his barbaric table manners than convincing her to let him stay by wolfing down her meal.

"What about you, Harry." Lily said. "Have you ever been in love?" He had poignantly been avoiding that subject for the last six years and his mother's curiosity had built up tremendously from what he could see. However, he also knew that when he did tell her, she and his father both wouldn't let it go for the rest of their deaths; Most likely Sirius as well. Harry shifted under her gaze and she broke out into a motherly smile. "I knew it!" She cried triumphantly. "That would be three galleons, boys. Pay up."

James grumbled and produced the after life gold out of his pocket; Sirius chuckled and did the same. However, when James didn't give Lily the money she raised an eyebrow good-naturedly and pulled out her wand. They were quite a picture; both grinning madly, James holding his money to him as if it were his life, and Lily holding a wand in one hand and her other palm outstretched.

"Give me the galleons, James." Lily admonished.

"They're not even real gold, their only after life galleons." James said still clutching the galleons to his chest.

"They buy things, don't they?" Lily told him. "And besides, they're real enough here."

"My money is your money," James reminded his wife.

"Give me the galleons, James, or you'll find out what it means exactly that you married an Evans witch."

James gulped, and Harry took pity on his father.

"You bet on me?" He asked effectively distracting his mothers demand for money.

"Of course we did," James said reaching across the table and ruffling Harry's messy black hair in silent thanks. His son pulled away quickly. His hair was messy enough. "Why did you think we were all pestering you for the last six years on the subject?" Harry shrugged. He had thought as much, which was the other main reason why he hadn't complied into telling any of them about Ginny.

"Who is it, then?" Sirius inquired. "Out with it." He winked at Harry. "Was it Cho?"

"No."

"Ha!" James said proudly. "Pay up Padfoot! My son would never go out with someone who cried after he's snogged her!" Sirius shrugged and pulled galleons out of his pocket, which James gladly took before passing his own money to his wife. Harry looked effectively embarrassed.

"You told them?" Harry asked to Sirius. "You told them she cried?"

"It's alright, Harry." Lily soothed playfully. "Merlin knows I was a terrible kisser on my first go."

"I don't want to think about it," Harry told her quickly at the thought of his mother kissing anyone. "And I'm not a terrible kisser. I don't think she really even liked me. She was stuck on her last boyfriend who had died."

"Do we know him?" Lily asked in reference to some of Harry's friends he visited in the after life.

"Er…yeah," said Harry. "It's Cedric. That's who she was crying over."

"Well," James said. "Sirius omitted that part." He paused. "I was wondering about that. I mean...I've been told once or twice when I was smashed that I was horrible at snogging -while I was smashed, but no one's ever cried over it."

"Who was it?" Sirius asked genuinely interested.

"Do you really need to know?" Harry said shifting in his chair.

"Yes," all three voices sounded at once.

"I could always go ask Albus," Lily reasoned to her son. "And besides, you've been elusive on the subject for far too long."

"I suppose I don't really have a choice then," Harry stated the obvious.

"No, son, you don't." James told him through a bite of salad. "I've given up trying to argue with your mother. It never works out in my favor. Sirius and Lily chuckled.

"Ginny Weasley," Harry mumbled quickly while hoping no one had heard it. He was wrong.

"I should have known," Sirius berated himself with a laugh. "She has red hair."

"I don't think there's been a Potter who hasn't fallen for a red head," James told his son. "I mean...you've met your grandmother... and mine. They both have red hair."

Sirius frowned. "I thought you said your grandmother was a natural blond and bewitched her hair red for eternity, James."

"She did," said Lily. "But when she saw that James' grandfather was falling for a different woman she went to desperate measures." She smiled at her husband warmly. "At least I didn't have to change anything." Sirius and Harry rolled their eyes in unison. Lily and James could go from behaving like an old married couple to a newly married one in seconds.

"Did you sleep with Ginny?" Sirius asked Harry catching everyone off guard. Especially Harry who had been drinking butterbeer and choked.

"Excuse me?" Harry tried to keep the color from rising in his cheeks. He really did. But finally the blush won the battle and all three of his parental figures were staring at him with different mixes of laughter and surprise in their expressions.

"I'm proud of you," Sirius said clapping Harry on the shoulder.

"How old were you?" James asked interestedly. Harry blushed harder.

"It's about time to get the dessert," Lily said quickly as she had become easily as embarrassed as her son. She got up and took off towards the house leaving her son with his godfather and father to endure the questions and humiliation that was sure to fallow. 'Perhaps,' she thought to herself as she walked into the house she had been living in since she had left the moral world. 'Perhaps this is the motivation Harry needs to go back.' Her thoughts turned to the sorts of things James and Sirius would be prying from her grown son and smirked. 'Good luck, Harry'.

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**A/N:** _I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! I'll upload soon! Please review! Thanks!_


	6. Hermione's Appointment

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter. Sniffle…cry…hic…sniffle…

**A/N:** _I hope everyone likes this chapter. It's a little longer than the other one's. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed!_

Sillygirrl: Aw! Thanks! I'm glad you liked that chapter on where Harry's been hanging out. Thank you for reviewing!

Whimsy007: I fear for the after life when the twins and Remus arrive. Haha! To respond, though, Harry doesn't know that Ginny isn't with him because he's with his parents. I hope that answers some... As for why Ginny is with Michael, I hope this chapter clears that up. Thanks for reviewing!

Rhapsody4: Yay! I'm so happy you want to write again! Thanks for reviewing! And I don't like a weak Ginny either. Chapter six, however, will really showcase her strength!

Gray Eyed Beauty: I hope this is updating soon enough! Yay! The muse was writing away! Thanks for reviewing!

HermesThriceGreat: I hope different is good! Thank you for your review!

Autumn Skys: Aw! Sorry it was a bit sad...but kinda happy since Harry finally gets to live with his parents, right? Thanks for reviewing!

Armywife012205: Yay! I'm so happy you liked it! Thanks for reviewing!

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**Chapter Five: Hermione's Appointment**

It was two minutes before twelve, based on what Ginny's sock has said after she transfigured it into a watch, and Ginny decided that she needed to speak to her father. Despite not being a loud man, Arthur Weasley was a very wise man, and when asked he usually knew what to say. Molly Weasley of course, had the same gift of wisdom, but Ginny feared if she went to her mother, the older woman would be so angry with Michael that she wouldn't be able to think clearly. Ginny, of course, having inherited this particular trait from her mother, didn't trust herself to think clearly around Michael either.

Not that Michael deserved anything less than to get his wand ripped out and then re-shoved up his backside after his display at lunch. Ginny Weasley shook her head at the thought as she walked through the streets of London. She was not about to be bought off by rich parents. If she was going to have children, with anyone, it would be out of love. Not desperation. However, upon second thought, Arthur Weasley was at the ministry, and Ginny didn't want to interrupt his work.

"Merlin," she breathed. She really was going to get sick at this rate. She'd been walking around in the storm for some time and that bone achingly cold feeling was starting to seep into her body. Also, her fingernails were blue and she was sure if she looked in the mirror her lips would have the same shade.

Deciding to go back to St. Mungo's, she walked down the many streets until she found a suitably abandoned alley and then apparated directly into her ward. She had four patients in there suffering from magical exhaustion. But unlike Harry's case, they were old, and it took a lot longer for them to regenerate their magical supplies than younger witches or wizards. She remembered three years ago how the ward had been brimming with people. And although it was sad not to see the people she had come to know so well, it was nice to see them move on with their lives and leave the hospital.

"What in Merlin's name have you been doing?" An elderly patient named Abigail called out to Ginny as she was about to make a quick exit. Ginny turned and walked over to the old woman.

"I went for a bit of a stroll," said Ginny.

"In this weather?"

Ginny smiled. "It cleared my mind. I suppose I realized some things."

Abigail snorted. "You'd better have. Otherwise I'd say it wasn't worth it." Ginny smiled. "Of course, if you're looking for a date, I'm sure walking around with wet see-through robes is a good start." Ginny looked down in horror only to realize that Abigail had been joking…At least about the see-through part.

"Actually I'm engaged," Ginny said. It felt thick in her mouth and she frowned in distaste as Michael's face popped into her mind.

"Can I offer you advice, Healer Weasley?" The old woman asked with a knowing smile. Ginny nodded. "I've married five men in my lifetime. Each as good a person as the last...but I wasn't in love until the fifth one. And it was then; that I truly knew what marriage is about. It's not about obligating yourself to someone because you don't want to hurt them by telling them off. And it's not about trying to convince yourself that you love someone because living the lie is easier than fessing up to the truth. It's about the joy you feel in the other's presence, and it's about the warmth that spreads through you when your companion enters the room."

"It sounds like a fantasy," Ginny said wistfully. Abigail shook her head.

"No, dear. It's also about sacrifice, and unconditional love. It's about the willingness to lay down to your death in the stead of your love. And it's about the ability to make the hard decisions that they won't understand, but will thank you for later. Marriage is about laying yourself out fully and absolutely in front of a person and trusting that they will not humiliate you. If you do not truly love whom you are about to marry...don't marry them. Marriage is wrapped into two simple questions: Would you die for them? And would you trust them to see you when you are most vulnerable?"

Ginny chuckled nervously and fidgeted with her wand in her hands. "And here I thought the questions were: Do you love them? And would you like to wake up in fifty years and see their face."

Seeing how uncomfortable her Healer had become, Abigail chuckled as well. "Those are good questions too."

"Are you feeling better?" Ginny asked changing the subject. "Does it still feel sore to use spells?"

"Less and less," Abigail replied with a content look. "Healer Rundell said that I should be out of St. Mungo's by the end of the year. And honestly I'm exited. My grandchildren are coming back from their first and third year at Hogwarts to see me on Christmas! They've only been gone off to school for a couple of days, but I miss them already."

"That should be nice," Ginny said pleasantly.

"Well," Abigail confided. "Seeing them will be nice. My son on the other hand will be a different story altogether." But before she could divulge, another voice startled both of them out of their conversation.

"Ginny," Hermione said looking around the ward. "I thought you said there was still a lot of magical depletion. You only have four patients."

Ginny, still weary of her sister-in-law from that morning, walked slowly to meet the bushy haired witch. "Er...well there is a lot of depletion. It's just, at a certain point the patient will heal just as fast in their own home. I have a lot of patients who come in to make sure they're not re-exhausting their reserves; Using extensively complex magic and all that." As Hermione took a step closer,

Ginny took a step back.

"You're still scared over this morning," Hermione observed. Ginny smiled shyly.

"It's not everyday your brother's pregnant wife runs at you demanding a pregnancy test," Ginny said with a laugh.

"Congratulations are in order. And I suppose I'll have to rethink your birthday present. Firewhiskey is completely off limits." She turned to Abigail. "Hermione, this is Abigail. Abigail, this is my sister-in-law Hermione."

"Ah," Abigail said with a smile. "It's nice to meet you."

"You as well," Hermione said politely.

"What brings you to this ward, Hermione?" Ginny asked with a frown. "I thought your appointment wasn't until three something."

"Its not," Hermione said guiltily. "I was hoping you could take me earlier. I just told my parents and they want me to go see them this afternoon. I'm sorry if its inconvenient. We could reschedule..." But Ginny waved her off.

"Let's go to the pre-natal ward. Its lunch hour for the healers not on call, anyway. I'll have you in and out in a half an hour." She turned to her elderly patient. "Do you mind if I go?"

Abigail snorted for the second time that day. "I'm not old enough to forget you're on break. Mathews told us as he's filling in for you." She stifled a yawn and settled more comfortably in her hospital bed. "And besides, you came in wet."

"Wet?" Hermione asked as she and Ginny left the room and entered the hallway towards the lift. "What did she mean 'wet'?

Ginny sighed. She had hoped not to go into this with her family yet. "I had lunch with Michael, and it didn't go over well...so I left him there and took a walk."

"In this dismal weather?"

"I was upset. And it was dreadful."

"What did he do?"

Ginny frowned recalling the memory that had taken place not one hour before. "He was a prat. First of all, he's moved up the wedding." Hermione gasped. She knew Ginny was unsure of whether or not she should marry Michael, even if the fiery witch wouldn't admit it. "And then he practically demanded I have his child within the next year." Hermione gasped again.

"He just told you?" She asked in almost disbelief. "Just like that? 'Have my child'."

"Basically," Ginny grimaced. Hermione put an arm around her husband's sister and squeezed comfortingly.

"And you ditched the git, right?"

"How do you ditch an engagement?" Ginny pleaded. "I mean...I've been engaged to him for nearly six months. I've been living with him...He loves me. He made that clear after he pursued me ten years after I'd previously ditched him."

The lift doors opened and they both stepped in. "Why did you start seeing him in the first place? And I know why Ron doesn't like seeing you with men; he's your brother. But I've never understood Michael either. Merlin knows he doesn't treat you well, and you don't seem to like him…from what I can see."

"I'm not sure I do like him," admitted Ginny.

"Then why plan out your future with him?"

"I suppose I panicked when it finally hit me that Harry wasn't going to wake up...so I shut him out and went for the first person who wanted me."

Hermione turned away from her sister-in-law and stared absently at the wall of the lift. "That doesn't sound very Gryffindor of you not to face your emotions." She turned back around. "Michael was just convenient to you. He gave you something to focus your pain on. Am I right?"

Ginny bit her lip. "That's partly true, I suppose. The other part is...I'm empty, and maybe I thought...maybe-"

"That he would fill that emptiness," Hermione filled in. "Then that's why you stopped visiting Harry?" Ginny nodded. "Because that would bring everything back. The ache. The dread that he would never wake up." Again Ginny nodded. "I tried to avoid Ron, you know." Hermione said absently rubbing her stomach. They stepped out of the lift and walked down the pre-natal hallway. Portraits of babies and their mothers and fathers lined the walls and smiled at them as they passed, but they didn't notice.

"Before you married?"

"Yeah. He'd been trying to get together with me for at least a year. Poor bloke. He finally worked up the courage to ask me on a date and I turned him down." Hermione said with a small smile. "And we stopped speaking after that. Not for very long, but long enough for me to feel void. Like part of me wasn't where it should be. As soon as I figured it out, of course, I flooed him at one in the morning and snogged him into next week. And after we-"

Ginny cut her off. "I really don't want to hear about my brother's personal life," Ginny said with a shudder. "It's disturbing."

Hermione laughed. "Well Harry's like a brother to me and you shagged him." Ginny looked shocked.

"How did you-"

"Please, Ginny." Hermione laughed at Ginny's expression. "I was surprised more people didn't know. I thought it was obvious."

"You also thought your N.E.W.T.'s were obvious," Ginny grumbled. "And what do you mean, 'more people'?" She unlocked the room nonverbally and opened it for Hermione. It was a pretty room decorated in pink and blue, with a fluffy white chair next to a comfortable looking yellow sofa on one side. On the other side there was a small potions lab that was custom in every St. Mungo's room. "Why don't you lie down on the sofa," Ginny told Hermione.

Hermione frowned. "There's no examination table?"

"Of course not," Ginny scoffed. "You're not being examined. You're being assessed and poked and prodded." The red haired witch smiled reassuringly at her sister-in-law. "Don't worry. It's designed to be comfortable. I've seen some muggle films with their doctors and it looks painful. And I thought you got checked over this morning?"

Hermione grinned sheepishly. "I assaulted the woman at the reception. She was the one who told me I was pregnant and sent me up to your superior." Ginny laughed.

"I see." Her laughter turned into a frown. "Who else knows about me and Harry?"

"Just me and Charlie," Hermione said reassuringly. Ginny blushed. "And he only found out because the two of you remembered the silencing charm but forgot the locking charm." She raised an eyebrow. "Hopefully you remembered the contraceptive charm as well? There aren't any little Harrys or Ginnys I'm unaware of, are there?"

"You're one to talk," Ginny admonished her pregnant relative. Hermione just smiled. "And that makes you the second person today to accuse me of having a child with Harry."

"Oh? Who else?"

"Colin," said Ginny. "He came by the hospital this morning for an interview."

"Oh? About what?"

"I'm Harry's new healer."

"Merlin! Really? Have you seen him? How do you feel? Can you tell me what's wrong? Those damn healers, no offence, won't tell me anything." Hermione ranted. "You're going to have to tell me everything you know. Finally, some inside information! They must realize he doesn't have family when they say those are the only people they can give information to-"

"Slow down," said Ginny. "I don't know anything yet. I have to be there at one thirty." Hermione looked disappointed. "But as soon as I know something, I'll be sure to tell you." Hermione's face brightened. "Alright, let's see about this pregnancy of yours."

"Tell me how far along I am," the brown haired witch said excitedly. Ginny smiled.

"Alright, but I'm afraid it requires a sacrificial part of your body."

"What?"

"You're going to need to sacrifice something to put in the potion to make it work." Ginny kept her face calm and collected while she watched Hermione panic. Of course there was no such thing involved.

"Like a finger?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"Of course not," Ginny finally laughed and Hermione followed, though her laughter was more nervous. "I need one of your hairs."

"I can live with that." Hermione sighed as she broke off a hair and handed it to Ginny who took it to the mini potions lab and dropped it in a blue vial that was sitting in a long row of other blue vials. "How can you tell which week I am from that?" Hermione asked curiously. Ginny rolled her eyes at the other girl's constant thirst for knowledge.

"It's the inner eye!" Ginny exclaimed in the same voice they had come to associate Professor Trelawney with. They both laughed.

"What's it really? I must confess, I haven't read much on pre-natal potions and spells."

"Well," Ginny continued. "It's rather simple. If you brew the potion right, you can do this at home." The vile changed to a strong violet color and Ginny brought it over to Hermione. "Numerus," Ginny cast while tapping her want on the vial. The potion hissed and started to evaporate into a purple mist above the vial. In the middle was the number 'five' in gold. "Finite." Ginny said to end the spell and the mist dropped back down in the vial as liquid.

"So that means I'm five weeks, then?" asked Hermione with misty eyes. At Ginny's nod she whispered, "Amazing..."

"Quite," Ginny said disposing of the vial. "And you haven't felt nauseous at all in the mornings?" Hermione shook her head and Ginny smiled wryly. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news...but it will happen. If not this week than next. And you may notice that you're more tired or moody, balloted...headaches. Welcome to motherhood!"

"I don't think my Mum got very much morning sickness," Hermione told Ginny. "I'll ask her about it." Ginny nodded.

"That's a good idea. And you should also find out if she delivered you early or late. How long your birth took...all of that." Hermione assured her with a nod that she would do just that. "And tell me, would you like to have a home delivery or one here?"

"Can I get back to you on that one?" Hermione asked. "I mean...I would be more comfortable at home, but of course if there are complications, there is no major medical treatment."

"We can discuses it later. It really all ties into how you were born. If it was simple, the likelihood of it being complicated for you is very slim. Of course there are always risks..." Ginny told her sister-in-law. "But again, it just depends on what you want. Now..."

Ginny grinned. "Let's see if I can get a gender." But before Ginny could do anything Hermione, the door burst open and a livid, wet, Michael Corner burst in. Startled, Hermione sat up on the couch and Ginny sat down beside her dumbstruck.

"Ginevra!" He bellowed. "You just left!"

"I'm with a patient, Michael." Ginny said in quiet outrage. "I actually work, unlike you."

"I work!" Michael shouted. "I work in Muggle relations!"

"Merlin knows how," Ginny whispered to Hermoine. "As he doesn't know any 'human' relations." Hermione would have giggled if Michael hadn't looked so dangerous. "Michael," Ginny told him with all the calm she could muster. "You have no right to be here."

"You're on break!" He yelled.

"Do I look like I'm on break?" Ginny demanded.

"You're choosing your work over me!" His voice sounded whiney and he had left the door open and was thus attracting a sort of crowd. "You have to come home right now! We need to talk!"

"Not now," Ginny said glancing around nervously. If she yelled at him with the gathering staff outside the door it could be seen as misconduct and she could lose her job. Regardless of whether or not they were betrothed. St. Mungo's had regulations she had to comply with. "Michael. I'll be home after work. We can talk then."

"We'll talk now!" His voice rose. "Why did you just leave!? I love you!"

Hermione leaned over to Ginny's ear. "Has he ever been violent?" Ginny shook her head slightly, but enough for Hermione to see. "Do you think he's sloshed?" Ginny's eyes widened. There had been that wine at lunch...

"Michael," Ginny said in a calming tone. "I promise as soon as I get home, we'll talk."

"No! We'll talk now!" He advanced towards the Weasley women and they huddled together slightly. "How dare you run out on me! I'm going to be your husband! Your husband! Show some respect!"

Ginny snapped. No one spoke to her that way. "Earn your respect!" She yelled back. "You can't just come in here drunk and yell in front of my patients! We are through!"

"What!?"

"We're over, Corner, I'm ditching you!"

"You can't ditch me!"

"Yes, I can! I will not be treated this way for the rest of my life! Leave the hospital, or I'll have someone forcibly remove you!" Ginny screamed. Her wand was in her hand and pointing threateningly towards Michael, but in his drunken state, he didn't know when to back down.

"We're engaged! You can't just ditch me! I wont allow it! I'll apparate us both back!" He made a grab for her, but she evaded him and he instead ran straight towards Hermione.

"Stupefy!" Hermione yelled. The red jet of light hit him square in the chest and he became unconscious. Unfortunately his bodyweight was still falling in her direction. She yelped as the bulk of Michael Corner came careening towards where she was sitting and got up quickly to avoid a collision. It was close. A second later and she might have been hit.

Ginny hiccupped slightly. "I'm sorry," she told Hermione as she ran to hug her friend. "I'm so sorry. I should have thought to Stupefy him earlier. He could have hurt you, and my niece or nephew. It was reflex...I dove out of the way."

Hermione, who was upset as well, just returned the hug and rubbed Ginny's back. "It's alright. I'm alright. I...I'm glad you ended it with him. He doesn't deserve you. And as for diving out of the way...Ginny, you forget that I was in the second war. I dueled Bellatrix Lestrange for Merlin's sakes. And I got a couple of spells in on Voldemort. Corner's not a problem."

Ginny only laughed through a sigh and nodded. They stayed there, just hugging, completely oblivious to the large crowd that had watched the whole thing. Hermione thought of her baby, and how she would need to protect it, as she already loved it in its entirety. And Ginny thought of the moment in the very near future when she would have to confront Michael on what he had done, and break up with him officially...as she was still wearing his ring.

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**A/N**: _I hope everyone enjoyed that! The next chapter is the final show down between Ginny and Michael! Please review! It feeds my muse, which makes more chapters! Yay!_


	7. Moving Out

Disclaimer: It would be very nice to own Harry Potter, but sadly I don't. The masterpiece is owned by JKR…I'm not sure if I should love that or hate it…

**A/N**: _Yay! Lots of reviews! Thank you everyone! You made my week! Alright, so here it is; the final showdown between Ginny and Michael. Be warned there is a small amount of physical violence at the end and if you have post-traumatic stress, I suggest you don't read it. Other than that, I hope you enjoy Ginny kicking some Michael ass!_

Joanna: Thank you for reviewing! Harry's waking up in Chapter eight…which the muse has yet to write…hehe.

Sillygirrl: Yay! I'm so happy you like Abigail. She was a fun character to write! I hope you enjoy the showdown! Thanks for your review!

Ginevra-james: Yeah, Chapter eight is soon! I'm so happy you like the story. As for ending Ginny and Michael…they may be over, but Michael is going to cause many more problems! Thanks for reviewing!

Rhapsody4: Haha! Yeah…we girls have a lot a strange tendencies when it comes to complicated relationships. Luckily she won't have to deal with Michael as a fiancé much longer. Thanks for reviewing!

Petroleumjellydotone: Cheers to you too! Thanks for reviewing!

Gray Eyed Beauty: Thanks for your review! To answer your question; no. Harry doesn't know Ginny ended it with him. He still thinks their together.

Kelmo: Don't worry. Ginny and Michael won't get back together, but there are complications to ending their relationship. I hope you like this chapter!

Chris: Thanks for your review!

The-irish-redhead: Haha! Yes it would be nice if everything resolved in one chapter, but then where would the plot go? Hehe! Thanks for reviewing!

HermesThriceGreat: The stage has indeed been set! Thanks for your review!

Armywife012205: I'm so happy you're addicted to the story! Yay! Don't worry, I won't let them get back together. Thank you for reviewing!

Autumn Skys: Falling off a cliff would be a great solution to the Michael problem…hehe, but it might kill my plot! Hahaha! Thanks for reviewing!

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**Chapter Six: Moving Out**

To say that Ginny Weasley was angry, was an understatement. A more appropriate word for what she was feeling was furious or even beside herself. It was five in the evening and she was pulling clothes out of her dresser haphazardly and throwing them into two open trunks that were laid out on the bed. They were her last trunks to pack, actually, as she had already packed the rest of the flat that was her's and flooed it off to Ron and Hermione's; leaving the bedroom for last.

Michael, who had been sleeping on the bed for the last four hours, and was only just waking, stared at the trunks next to him in mute horror. After his fiasco at the hospital, Clement had told her to take him home and that she would be brought up to speed on Harry's condition another day. She, of course, protested, but Clement insisted that her fiancé obviously needed her more than Harry did.

"What are you doing?" mumbled Michael as he came out of his spell induced slumber.

"I'm packing," said Ginny swiftly as she threw her dress robes into the first trunk.

"Ginevra..." Michael said weakly while clutching his head. "Please-"

"Don't," Ginny said harshly. "You don't have the right to be speaking to me."

"I didn't mean-"

"I don't care what you meant, Michael. It was a mistake ever going out with you or becoming engaged. We should just forget the whole thing." Her packing became even more frenzied as she started taking her anger out on her clothes.

"Why did you?" His voice seemed slightly broken. "Why did you accept then?"

Ginny sighed. "To fill a void." She pulled out her wand and pointed at her jumbled cloths in the trunks and had them fold themselves with satisfactory results.

"What does that mean?"

"I don't owe you any explanations." Ginny moved on to pulling the pictures of herself and her family off of the walls in the room and shrinking them.

"I love you," he said as if it explained his behavior before. Ginny's eyes narrowed.

"You could have hurt Hermione! Or me!" she yelled at him. Michael winced from the loud noise and clutched his head again.

"But I didn't," he said through clenched teeth.

"That's irrelevant! You could have! You were smashed!" Ignoring her packing altogether, she rounded on him completely and bellowed, "Do you realize what could have happened if you had used your wand!?" She had a good point, and Michael knew it. Drunk wizards and witches alike had a tendency to slur their spells which could result in serious injury. He shrunk back from her in defeat.

"Please don't leave me. I know I overreacted to lunch..."

"It's too late, Michael!" Ginny piled all of her shrunken photographs and dropped them into her suitcase lightly. "And Lunch was entirely your fault!"

Slowly, Michael got out of bed and walked over to Ginny. "Just give us a chance...just one last chance..."

"No," Ginny told him. She moved swiftly to the pillows on the bed and started shrinking them as well to go into her trunks.

"W-What are you doing?"

"These are my pillows, and I intend to keep them," said Ginny.

"I'll do anything, Ginevra. Anything..." he said. Before she could walk away he grabbed her hands and forced her to look into his eyes. "Doesn't our relationship at least deserve that? We've been together...we deserve that. Just a chance." Letting go of her hands, he turned and observed her trunks with reserved sorrow in his features. "You can't just throw away our engagement. We've committed to each other. Let's try to work through this."

Ginny sighed. He was right on this account. Damn him. And even though she wasn't in a relationship she liked, it was more than unfair of her not to at least hear him out. She wasn't a cruel person... "I'll give you one hour," she told him finally. It was the least she could do.

"Thank you," Michael breathed. "Thank you..."

"But only one hour," she warned, already regretting her decision. He nodded. "And if we can't resolve this I'm leaving." He nodded again. "Right, so what do you suggest?" Her tone was forced and she clicked the heel of her foot impatiently.

"Let's just talk," he proposed. He took her hand gently as if she would break if he used any force and led her out of the room and down the hall to the main room and living area. Together they sat down on one of the two sofas in front of the fireplace and stayed in an uncomfortable silence. "Ginevra..." he began, "I-"

"Don't call me that," Ginny snapped. "I've never liked it."

"Alright," Michael said nervously. "No need to get testy."

"I'll be testy if I want to."

"Be reasonable," Michael pleaded. "I really am trying, Ginevra-"

"I told you not to call me Ginevra!" Ginny snapped again while standing up from the couch. She made to walk away, but he stopped her. "How in Merlin's name are we going to live with each other if we're married!? It will be like being under the cruciatus curse twenty four hours, everyday, every week, every year!"

"Do you really like being around me that little?" Michael asked sadly.

'Yes!' Ginny's mind screamed, but she replied. "Do I really have to answer that?" He ignored her.

"Because I don't think I could live without you." He pulled at her hand and she sat back down slowly. It was her kindness she had to thank for giving him a last chance, and she was seriously considering revoking that decision. Did he have to be so melodramatic?

"I'm sure you'd manage somehow," she mumbled. 'You pompous git," she added in her mind.

"No...because I love you," Michael insisted. "And when you're not around...I feel...sad, and...and...and...and sad," he finished lamely. Ginny raised an eyebrow. "And incomplete," he covered quickly. "And I won't lose you. Not to something as simple as pre-wedding anxiety...every couple has had its fights. Look at...Ron and Hermione."

Ginny shook her head. "No, Michael. Ron and Hermione are different. They fight because they have pent up sexual frustration." She paused. "I can't believe I just said that. Anyway...they can't keep their hands off each other."

"And it's not that way with us?" Michael leered. Ginny turned green. "When we get through this...it will make us stronger. It will bring us closer together."

"Or maybe it will drive us further apart."

"You don't mean that."

Ginny rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Right," she said nodding her head in false vigor. But Michael missed the sarcasm altogether and a great eerie smile formed on his face.

"So," he said brightly. "Ginevr-" Ginny cleared her throat. "Ginny," he corrected.

"Better," she told him.

"I'm going to resolve this," Michael told her. Ginny stared at him blankly. "I'm going to take you out on Sunday."

"I can't go out Sunday."

"What's wrong with Sunday?"

Ginny rolled her eyes a second time. "You mean besides the obvious reasons from the last fiasco we had while eating in a restaurant?" Michael nodded reluctantly. "It's Hermione's birthday party on Sunday and I have to be there."

"You didn't tell me we had plans," Michael told her accusingly. Ginny furrowed her brow.

"Exactly how thick are you?" She said slowly. "You could have hurt Hermione today and you expect her to let you into her party? You expect Ron to let you within two hundred meters of her? You're lucky to be in the same country." Ginny sighed and stood from the couch in order to pace in front of the fireplace. "And even if there hadn't been the incident today during Hermione's appointment. Hermione and I are sick and tired of your little pissing contest with everyone male in my family."

"So this is about her appointment," Michael said stupidly. "It really was nothing, I-"

Ginny saw red. "Nothing!?" she yelled. "Nothing!? You could have cost me my job! And if Hermione wasn't my sister-in-law, you bloody well would have!"

"I don't want to fight, Ginevra," Michael said quickly.

"I told you not to call me Ginevra!"

"Ginny, then." Michael pleaded. "Please, stop-"

"Than stop acting like a prat," Ginny hissed and turned away. "Think before you speak. Hermione's appointment was a disaster." She turned to him. "It was a disaster because of you."

"Throwing insults around won't help," said Michael. "Let's just discuss this."

"And here I thought we already were..."

"Ginerv-"

"Don't make me tell you not to call me that again," Ginny said while sitting on the opposite couch.

"Can I call you something else then?"

"Ginny," she supplied. "That's what everyone calls me."

"Exactly. I want it to be personal."

"I don't see what's wrong with 'Ginny'," Ginny told him sourly. "That's my name you're insulting."

"No...not insulting," Michael argued. "I just want it to be more personal; Something that we share."

"This isn't helping your cause Michael." said Ginny. "You can call me what you want and I'll still ditch you. No mater how personal it is," she added on afterthought.

"Are you sure you're not looking for an excuse to ditch me?" Michael asked.

'Yes,' Ginny said mentally. 'I just want to leave because I only gave you a second chance in order to be a better person. But now I regret it wholly and I would like nothing better than to jinx you into tomorrow so don't give me the opportunity if you value your manly bits.' But to his face she only shrugged and told him, "I don't really need an excuse."

Michael ignored her comment. "I know what I'll call you," he said with triumph. Ginny leaned back into the couch absentmindedly thinking of shrinking it and putting it in one of her trunks as well. "I'll call you 'Gin'." Ginny went pale and cleared her throat.

"Not that name."

"But it's lovely," Michael told her quietly. She frowned. Was he trying to get her angry on purpose? Everyone who knew her knew who had called her that. Either he was very stupid or very mental.

"I said no." Ginny's voice was cold and her eye's bore into Michael's with raw intensity.

"It fits you nicely. It's cute and short and-"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because...I...no. Just, no. Anything but that."

Michael smiled at her maliciously, gouging her reaction. "I like it," he said as if pondering it. "Yes...Gin...it's nice."

Ginny snapped. He had pulled her last straw, and she had given him another chance. Now, he had crossed the line. And no one did that without paying for it. "Did I not just tell you no!? Are you deaf!?"

"I've heard people use that name before!" Michael said matching her volume.

"You couldn't have! No one's used that name except-!" She cut herself off. 'Harry', her mind supplied. Michael's expression turned violently angry and he stood up languidly from the sofa.

"It's what he used," he said in a harsh voice. "Isn't it, Gin." Ginny flinched as he spat her nickname and stared at him in seething anger. "Is it reserved for him or something? Merlin, we're going to be married! I should be able to call you that!"

"No!" Ginny yelled. "If you call me that again, I'll hex you! And I don't just mean a stunner!"

"He's not coming back, Gin! You're engaged to me! To me!" Michael bellowed. "Gin, you said yes to me! I remember, at my parent's house! You were smiling and you said yes!" He paused, red in the face, to catch his breath. "You love me, not him. Right, Gin!?" It happened so quickly Michael couldn't even blink. One moment he was standing on the floor and the next he was hanging upside-down in midair by some invisible force seemingly connected to his left ankle. His wand, which had been in his pocket, had fallen uselessly to the floor. "Let me down!"

"I warned you not to call me that," Ginny said coolly.

"Choose now," Michael ordered her from his turned over position. "Me, or him...and keep in mind that he will never return for you. In fact-"

"Are you mental?" Ginny asked. "Or just really stupid. Because I thought I just heard you ask for me to choose between you and Harry Potter." Michael only nodded. "Fine." Ginny waved her wand and let him down from dangling into a heap on the floor. "Take your bloody ring," she told him. "You're off your rocker making me choose."

Michael scrambled up to his feet gingerly and picked his wand up off the floor. "You don't mean that," he told her.

"I damn well mean it!" Ginny told him and made to take the ring off. It didn't move. She tried it again, and again it would not leave her finger. "Take the ring back! I choose him!" She pulled out her wand and produced soap bubbles in order to make her finger more slippery, but the ring would not budge.

"You don't mean that," Michael told her again, while seemingly unaware of her problem.

"I can assure you, Michael! I mean every word I say!" Ginny yelled while trying to expand the ring in order to slip it off of her finger.

"But I love you," Michael protested, still uninterested in her struggle. This only infuriated Ginny further.

"You idiot!" She roared. "You've treated me like property from the very moment I went out with you! I'm not your prize winnings! I don't know why I've wasted a year of my life with you! We don't get along, and by Merlin we are not at all meant for each other!" She gave one last tug to her engagement ring before standing up from the couch and pointing her wand at his face. "And why won't this bloody ring come off!?"

Michael waved his arm unconcerned. "I put a spell on it," he told her offhandedly.

"Brilliant," she said sarcastically. "You've cursed the damn thing!"

"It's a symbol of our everlasting love," Michael said while sitting back down on the sofa. "Come sit next to me, Gin."

"Are you out of your mind!? I. Don't. Love. You!"

"You don't mean that."

"Take it off!" Ginny screeched. She walked over to him purposefully and thrust her hand in his face all the while keeping her wand pointed in the same area. Michael didn't seem concerned.

"It only comes off when we marry to show our love and commitment for each other," he explained. "I thought it was romantic."

"Well isn't that convenient! Because it just so happens your notion on what is and what's not romantic could rival Crabbe and Goyle in stupidity! Now...take it off!" Ginny screamed.

"I just told you," Michael said. "I can't."

"Arg!" Ginny cried in frustration. She turned around in anger and then back around and pointed her wand at the sofa Michael was sitting on. "Reducto!" And in an array of goose feathers and upholstery, the couch burst and disintegrated from under the wizard, who promptly fell on the floor.

"You're mad!" He yelled at her as he rubbed his sore bottom. "I told you I can't take it off! We have to get married!"

"And then it does what!?" Ginny yelled further. "It just falls off by itself, does it!?"

"Well then we'd be married wouldn't we?" Michael said agitated. "It would stay on...unless we divorced."

"Oh, you're just loving this, aren't you," Ginny said in quiet fury.

"Hardly," Michael admitted. "After your promise to wait until marriage, I pledged an unbreakable vow of fidelity to you in front of my parents. It's either you or no one."

"Is that why you wanted the wedding moved up?" Ginny asked in disbelief and disgust. "The money...that was just greed. And I could partially understand it, even if I didn't agree with it. But if the real reason you moved up our wedding was because you couldn't live however long without a shag, then I am completely and utterly disgusted with you."

"You don't know what it's like, Ginevra. You haven't-"

"I have." Ginny said plainly. "Just never with you." She paused. "Now, take off this ring or I swear on my brother Percy's left leg, that-"

"I can't!" Michael shouted. "Only if we marry! Did you hear me the first three times I told you?"

"I heard you!" Ginny shouted back. "But I'm not marrying you!" When Michael started to retort, Ginny glared him into silence. "And, I don't give a damn about your problem. I'm never sleeping with you and it serves you right to never be able to-"

"Why don't you love me?" Michael said cutting her off.

"Michael! The reasons...there isn't enough parchment in this world!"

"You don't mean that," Michael told her. Ginny blew up.

"Stop telling me what I mean and don't mean! You're driving me up the bloody wall! I know what I mean, Damnit!" Ginny exclaimed at the top of her lungs. Raw magic burst out of the end of her wand and hit the second sofa that she had planned to take with her. It combusted into flames. "Damnit!" Nonverbally, she summoned her trunks from the other room and with a pinch of floo powder she tossed both of them one after another into the flames and yelled, "Ron and Hermione's house!" The trunks disappeared into a vast swirl of green. She turned back to Michael. "I'm leaving."

"Where are you going?" Michael asked her as if he hadn't heard the destination of her luggage. He was standing awkwardly where the first sofa had been, and watching her pace about with a sad expression etched into his frowning features. Ginny, though, made no move to respond to him as she threw another pinch of floo powder in the fire and made to step in. "Ginevra! Ginny!" Michael called desperately and ran over to her, pulling her out of the fire and knocking her onto the floor. Ginny gasped and she fell and her wand left her hand.

"How dare you!"

"I didn't mean to," Michael said crouching down beside her and placing a caring but firm hold on her. "But I can't let you leave."

Ginny stared at him. "You can't let me?"

"I love you," the grip on her arm tightened and Ginny struggled to reach for her wand.

"Let go of me, you arse!" Ginny yelled.

"If I let go, you'll leave," Michael told her.

"I know I will!" Ginny agreed while trying to kick and hit him away from her. But he just held on tighter. Ginny flailed helplessly. She was no match for him physically no matter how strong her magic was. "Let go!"

"I'm sorry, Ginevra. But you're destined to be my wife. I've made so many sacrifices for you." Michael said calmly while pinning her to the floor with his body. Ginny screamed. "And you've never even told me you loved me. Not once." Using his other hand he stroked her hair lovingly.

"Get off me!" Ginny screamed again. "I'm not going to compensate you because you made a bad decision of fidelity!"

"Tell me you love me," Michael said while shifting himself further on top of her.

"No!"

"Why's that?"

"Because I don't love you," Ginny spat. Freeing one of her arms she clocked him in the face and scrambled away quickly as he howled in pain. She rolled to her wand and pointed it at him with a strange series of curses on her lips. A second later it was Michael screaming. "I hope you like that," Ginny said while standing up. Her legs were shaking, but she didn't care. Michael was writhing on the floor with bogey's the size and shape of bats streaming from every orifice of his body, which resembled a giant swollen teapot more than anything else. "My bat-bogey hex," Ginny said walking over to the fireplace. "With improvements," she added.

"But you...love...me," Michael choked out through bat bogeys. "I...know...you love...me...like I love...you."

Ginny took her floo powder and threw it into the flames before stepping in. "No Michael," she said before leaving. "I love Harry Potter."

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**A/N:** _I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Ginny finally has her priorities straight! Yay! I'll try and update soon. The muse is just writing away! And please review! It makes the muse very, very happy!_

_Oh, and Happy Birthday to me! _


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